Haridwar, January 14
Lakhs took dip in the Ganga on the occasion Makar Sankranti here today. Braving the cold weather, devotees thronged the Ganga ghats, particularly the Braham Kund, Har-Ki-Pauri. The devotees offered Ganga jal to the sun after taking holy dip. Rituals were also offered at the Ganga ghats.

SSP Kiran Lal Shah said the religious bath passed off peacefully with the mela police being in place since last evening. Shah said the mela area was bifurcated into five zones and 14 sectors in view of Makar Sankranti.

For the occasion, 10 inspectors, 33 sub inspectors,18 head constables,1 platoon provincial armed constabulary, 238 newly recruited constables were also deployed.

The bomb disposal squad deployed for the occasion checked sensitive areas, keeping tabs on important places.

The Hardiwar Circle Officer, Traffic, said due to the Allahabad Kumbh and winter season, the pilgrim turnout got affected in the city due to which traffic restrictions and alternate diversionary plan were not put in place.

The traffic was smooth on the NH 58 and 72, he added.

Dehradun, January 14
Dehradun District Magistrate BVRC Purshottam, with active support from Dehradun-based NGO Waste Warriors, carried out a cleanliness drive on the premises of the District Magistrate’s office and Collectorate.

Others who participated in the drive were City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat, 25 student volunteers of the NSS wing from DAV PG College and other local colleges along with staffers of the Collectorate, sweepers and workers from the Municipal Corporation. Waste Warriors’ garbage girl Jodie Underhill of England, volunteer Sid Conquest from Germany, Vijender and Karma and board members of Waste Warriors, Rajat Saxena and Sujata Paul Maliah also participated in the drive.

The drive is a precursor to the initiative being undertaken by the district administration under the slogan ‘Clean Doon Clean Campus’. Waste Warriors has been working to generate awareness among the public and seeks implementation of the existing laws by the officials in charge in order to create and maintain a clean Dehradun.

The Collectorate and the court compound today saw a flurry of clean up activity as the motley group of officials, volunteers, young students and municipality workers led by the District Magistrate himself moved from one end to the other. Earlier, the District Magistrate welcomed the students and made them take an oath to keep Dehradun clean. The students were inspired by Jodie Underhill whereas the District Magistrate himself set up a wonderful example by participating in the drive. The District Magistrate was also seen telling a worker how to use a broom properly and other times he was seen giving instructions for dustbins and cleaning the premises on a regular basis.

City Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat was also seen picking garbage along with the young volunteers.

Later, the volunteers were thanked by the District Magistrate and the sweepers from the Municipal Corporation were rewarded. The District Magistrate gave a reward of Rs 2,500 to Jodie Underhill as a token of appreciation. Vice-president, Waste Warriors, Sujata Paul Maliah, thanked the District Magistrate for the initiative and hoped that his effort would be carried forward by the young students present and they would spread the message in order to create and maintain a clean Dehradun.

(Photos on page 2)

Dehradun, January 14
Lohri was celebrated by the DAV (PG) alumni association here yesterday. An All-India Mushaira and kavi sammelan was held on the occasion. More than 20 poets from various places presented their verses by touching upon the recent unfortunate incident of gang rapeof a young girl in Delhi, female foeticide and patriotism.

DS Mann, vice-president of the association, presided over the function and wished everyone on the festival. He also appreciated the poems recited on the occasion.

Dr Himmat Singh, Dr IP Saxena, Shyam Sunder Goel, RM Sobti and AC Singh also spoke on the occasion. The following poets took part in the programme- Akhtar Multani Nazibabad, Dr Amjad Ali Saharanpur, Wali Devbandi Devband, Shadab Zafar Najibabad Narendra Sharma Aman, Inam Ramji, Shadab Mashandi, Nadeem Bismil, Zahid Doonvi, Rajesh Anand Aseer, Ambar Kharbanda, BK Sinha, Dard Garhwali, Dr Rakesh Baluni, Nawal Kishore Bahuguna, Ikram Elahi Bijnori, Daudi, Pradeep Singh, Ravinder Seth and Baldesh Gupta.

In the end, RK Bakhshi, president of the association, thanked the participants and guests.

Dehradun, January 14
No efforts have been made to repair the plasma pyrolyzer lying idle at the Doon Hospital that had developed a snag last year.  The Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) had provided this state of the art equipment for destroying biomedical waste at a cost of Rs 45 lakh. But instead of scouting engineers to repair the pyrolyzer so that the hospital waste could be destroyed at the source the authorities are now relying on the Bhagwanpur-based Medical Pollution Control Committee (MPCC) for the collection of hospital waste.

“I have been trying to contact engineers in Gujarat but nobody is ready to come and undertake repairs. We have also failed to find engineers locally,” says Dr BC Pathak, Principal Superintendent, Doon Hospital.

The hospital authorities say the facility requires a huge quantity of waste but the waste being generated at the three government hospitals is far less. As a result the machine could not function at the optimum level and developed a snag.

However, officials of the UCOST maintain that the Doon Hospital is reluctant to optimally use the equipment that burns biomedical waste at 600°C. They are hell-bent upon derailing the whole process as they are interested in sourcing waste through a private company in lieu of monetary gain.

“The plasma pyrolyzer proves to be better than the incinerator, as it burns even small quantities of waste to ash without producing harmful fumes, but the Doon Hospital is not enthusiastic about the machine. For efficient running of the machine, it should be able to destroy at least 85 kg of waste at a time, but our suggestions have been ignored. This is one reason that the machine developed a snag,” says a senior official. 

Dehradun, January 14
Protesting against the Director of National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) high-handed attitude, the employees of the NIVH today reported to work wearing black bands.

The employees are angry with the Director for denying them various allowances, including childcare, earned leave and home visit allowance.

The president of the NIVH Employees' Federation, Subhash Binjola, said that though NIVH was an autonomous body under the Central Government, the Director was bent upon treating it as a private body. "We are victims of the high-handed behaviour of our Director and in case we protest, transfer orders are handed out. The NIVH is a an autonomous organisation. As such salaries and allowances are akin to the Central Government employees," said Binjola.

He said: " In case the Director failed to heed to our demands, the employees would be forced to launch a demonstration and protests."

Dehradun, January 14
The Doon Citizens Council (DCC) will present its prestigious ‘Pride of Nation’ awards to ONGC’s Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva and Chairman of Max India Analjit Singh for their distinguished contributions to the growth of their respective conglomerates.

Analjit Singh

Sudhir Vasudeva

The awards will be presented on January 16 at a special function with Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna as the chief guest.

Known for honouring excellence, the DCC will also confer its Pride of Uttarakhand award to Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain and DGP Satyavrat Bansal. Two other nominees for the Pride of Uttarakhand awards are social activist Shevata Rai Talwar and educationist Surjit Ahluwalia.

The DCC was founded in 1994 by veteran journalist Raj Kanwar with the object of encouraging and recognising excellence and talent not only in the country but also in Dehradun. The late MM Tayal was made the first president. Over the years, the council has grown in stature and today represents the capital’s civil society. Some of the recipients of its coveted Pride of Nation awards include TN Seshan, Nani A Palkhiwala, Sunil Gavaskar, R Chidambaram, Gen VP Malik (retd), Shabana Azmi, Subir Raha, Rahul Bajaj, Kiran Bedi, Chanda Kochhar and Brij Mohan Lal Munjal. It is a long list of recipients of the Pride of Doon (later named Pride of Uttarakhand after the formation of the state) awards include Ruskin Bond, Nergis Dalal, Nayantara Saghal, Dr Dalbir Singh, Abhinav Bindra, Jyotsna Brar and late RC Singhal, Air Chief Marshal SK Sareen, Lt Gen HB Kala (retd) besides Nityanand Swami.

Mussoorie, January 14
The demand to reserve the prestigious Mussoorie Municipal Council post of president for women candidates and from the Scheduled Caste category is gaining momentum in Mussoorie.

The president's seat for the Mussoorie Municipal Council, considered to be one of the richest councils in North India, has not been reserved for either women or Scheduled Caste candidates, and has remained a general seat despite the rotation policy being introduced by the Election Commission around the country, leading to strong voices from the probable candidates, who have filed their objections in front of the Urban Development Department here.

According to local historian Gopal Bhardwaj, the Governor General-in-council under the then British rule that was empowered to appoint justices of peace for the presidency towns by the Charter Act in 1793 were vested with the authority to impose taxes on houses and lands to provide for the sanitation of towns and establish institutions in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.

Following that an Act was passed in 1850 to permit formation of local committees to make better provisions for public health and convenience, which resulted in the formation of the Municipal Council in Mussoorie in 1850 with the first elected president being Major Fruth, who stayed at the post till 1853.

He was followed by Colonel Wagh (1854), Major HC Talbet (1855-56), J Mackinon (1857-61), Major WJ Rind (1862-64) and W. Hobson (1865-74). Therafter, HG Ross, W.Church, F.Baker. Macpherson, J Nujent, EA Tweedy, FL Winter and GJ Adams worked as ex-offcio charimen from 1875 to 1920, to name a few.

From 1920 the practice of electing the president or the chairman was continued once again, and Col JH Beer, RS Dass, TN Tankha, Darshan Lal, RN Lal, RSM Hasan and JF Gantzer were elected till 1941.

From 1941 Hifazat Hussain and JB Gantzer took over as administrators, and the practice continued till 1953 when RB Chuttan Lal, CM Ker, Safi Ahmed Qidwai, BD Sanwal, AD Pandit, BB Lal and VC Sharma were appointed as administrators.

The practice of elected president was re-started in 1953 till 1976 with RK Verma, Jagannath Sharma, Hukum Singh Panwar and Bhola Singh Rawat managing the affairs of the town with only exception of Satya Sood, who remained as elected president for one year, 1965-66, due to reasons other than that of reservation.

Jot Singh Gunsola was elected for the post of president in 1988 and re-elected for the same post in 1994. Manmohan Singh Mall was elected president in 2003. The present president, OP Uniyal, was elected in 2008.

Members from the Scheduled Castes and women's category rue the fact that the town has been biased towards the male members as the seats for wards are reserved for other categories at council member level but not at the president level.

Women probable candidates Jasvir Kaur, Anita Saxena, Neerja Pandhi, and Jaikishan Shah and Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi from the Dalit community are of the view that they have been sidelined while deciding the reservation for the post of president in Mussoorie, and it is due to this that no women or Dalit community person has ever been crowned for the post of president of the Mussoorie Municipal Council.

Anita Saxena has even filed her objection and has demanded equal share in the power at the top level.

Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi is of the view that the close aides of the Chief Minister from the general category are bound to twist the decision in their favour.

Dehradun, January 14
Khalsa Cricket Academy and NICS Academy won their respective matches in the Vasdev Singh Raghav Memorial Cricket Tournament played at the Survey stadium here today.

A batsman in action in a match in the Vasudev Singh Raghav Memorial Cricket Tournament in Dehradun on Monday.

In the first match, Khalsa Cricket Academy defeated the M Milk Cricket team by 49 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Khalsa Cricket Academy scored 141 runs losing all wickets in 20 overs. Opener Honey was the top scorer with 38 runs. Mukul took three wickets for 10 runs. In reply, the M Milk Cricket team was all out for 92 runs in 16 overs and lost the match by 49 runs. Nishant was the top scorer for the team with 32 runs. Siddaharth took four wickets for only eight runs while Gautam took three wickets for 21 runs.

In the second match, NICS Academy defeated United Scholars by 80 runs. NICS Academy chose to bat first after winning the toss. They scored 136 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. Opener Bhvesh scored 58 runs. Uday took three wickets for 17 runs.

In reply, the United Scholars team was all out for a partly 56 runs. Mohit took three wickets for only five runs.