Pithoragarh, February 17
Roads to high altitude town of Munsiyari and Vyans valley in Dharchula has been closed for the past 24 hours as continued rains and snowfall affected the life in the hilly district.

According to the Meteorological Department the measurement of rains at lower valleys remained at 30 mm, while the higher reaches of Dharchula, Munsiyari, Ranikhet and Pindari and Nainital hills received about one to four feet of snow in the last 24 hours.

"People of Munsiyari suffered badly as the town remained powerless due to heavy snowfall," said Devendra Deva, a hotelier.

"Nainital town received heavy turnout of tourists as the Mall Road, Thandi Sarak, Talli tall and surrounding hills witnessed highest snowfall of the season measuring at one feet," said Rajiv Lochan Shah, a hotelier and journalist in Nainital.

Sources from Munsiyari town said the road to the town was closed after the snowfall covered 10 km area from Patalthor to Kalamuni on Saturday night. "The minimum temperature of Munsiyari, dropped at 0°C on Saturday while the maximum temperature remained at 7°C," said a source from the Meteorological Department.

Champawat district received 35 mm rains in the last 24 hours raising the rainfall level to 95 mm this year. The temperature level remained at a maximum of 7.5°C on Saturday morning in the district.

According to Agriculture scientists, the rain will have mixed benefits, while the clouds and rains will incur diseases in wheat crops, apple and potato crops will yield benefits out of these rains.

"Wheat farmers will have to spray required medicine on the wheat crop to save it from yellow disease which occurs due to cloudy weather at this stage," said Dr D Kumar, district agriculture officer, Pithoragarh.

Dehradun, February 17
The Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) is toying with the idea of providing a reprieve to the owners of wedding points who are violating the norms in the city. Around 16 of them, who have already defied the notice sent to them by the MDDA, have been able to evade the sealing process by the MDDA so far.

Vice-chairman, MDDA, RM Sundaram said, “Since 70 wedding points in the city have been identified which have been built illegally, the MDDA has the compulsion not to seal all of them in one go. The public will face inconvenience in wake of shortage of wedding space in the city. So we are taking action against them in parts. Now notices have been sent to only 16 of them. Similarly, we are also trying to convince the wedding point owners to sell off their properties and buy land elsewhere in the city.” He said the owners had no other option as the provision under which they had built the structures were for residential properties and not commercial properties. They could not built the buildings otherwise also, as the construction was permitted only for residential purpose on the specific land and not for commercial purpose.

He said the MDDA had been lenient with most of the wedding points and only zeroed in on 70 of them who defied all parameters.

The parameters are; an applicant for a wedding point has to clear the map and approve the layout of the buildings, provide for sufficient parking space and build the structure on a road at least 18 metre wide. All these clearances have to be taken from the MDDA, which none of them followed at all.

It was on the direction of the Monitoring Committee of the Supreme Court that the MDDA had begun the task of identifying these wedding points.

The most irksome part about them was lack of parking space. Given to this, whenever the wedding took place there, the vehicles would block the space on the road and create jam for long hours. Most of the these wedding points have been built on the main roads in the city, which made the matters further worst.

The MDDA could have gone on ignoring these, but the intervention of the Monitoring committee of the Supreme Court did not let that happen any more.

Dehradun, February 17
The art gallery opened in Hotel Drone by the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) is fetching art aficionados in droves. The gallery that was opened recently is doing brisk business. It is the first art gallery opened by any government department in the city.

Matching perfectly well with the blooming variety of flowers placed in the pots in hotel corridors, the paintings showcasing vibrant tableau of lifestyle of people living across the Himalyan range of hills hold guests in awe as they enter the threshold of the hotel. Hundreds of such paintings put up in symmetry have visitors discussing the theme and their own experiences connected to it.

Managing Director, GMVN, Dr Pankaj Pandey, said, “I am very happy with the public response the gallery at Hotel Drone is getting. We will support the artists and promote the art in every possible way.”

The hotel, which was in ruins a year ago, as it was used as free a guest house for the hangers-on of political parties, has not only been revamped but also turned into an art centre. Even the exhibition hall, which faces the front door, used to be a room meant for throwing discarded items of the hotel. Now it stays open, welcoming the guests with splash of colors.

Manager DS Negi, the man who gave the essential makeover to the hotel, said, “Earlier the guests who booked the suites used to confine themselves to their rooms but now they come out to watch the exhibition. Even the art lovers and intellectual crust of society come here every day. The hotel café, which earlier was a centre of gossip for political activists, now has the eclectic gathering of artists and the art admirers. The rent for the hall is Rs 6,000 per day, though the discount of Rs 1,500 is given to the needy.”

LP Thapliyal, whose painting ‘Ladakh’ adorns the wall, says, “The gallery is a boon for the people associated with art. It is centrally located and much affordable than the other private art gallery in the city.” Another artist said he could now think of holding an exhibition of his own collection which did not seem possible earlier. He said two of his paintings that he had put up in the gallery fetched good price and were sold within a few days of the exhibition.

Dehradun, February 17
The annual prize distribution ceremony of Civil Defence Organisation was organised in Dehradun today. Civil defence Director and General Homeguards Commandant Uttarakhand RS Meena appreciated the activities of the civil defence volunteers in the state.

He said volunteers of the organisation were the real and selfless social activists and asserted that their services to society were commendable.

"These civil defence volunteers serve society without any discrimination of caste and religion," Meena said. He also distributed prizes to various civil defence volunteers.

Among the other senior civil defence volunteers, who were honoured for their outstanding services to the society, included Umeshwar Rawat, Maj Prem Lata Verma, Naresh Luthra, Sanjay Bijalwan, Pramod Dobhal and Yogesh Aggarwal. Anil Verma got the best incidence control officer award 2012.

Chief warden Chandragupta Vikram and deputy chief warden Satish Aggarwal addressed the gathering.

The ceremony was presided over by CS Bhothiyal, deputy controller, civil defence.

Dehradun, February 17
The Uttar Pradesh Police and the Vidhya Jain Cricket Academy, Delhi, won their respective matches in the 5th All-India Shaheed Girish Badri Memorial Cricket Tournament played here today.

In the first match played at the Rangers College ground, the UP police team defeated Garhwal Heroes by 28 runs. The UP Police team after winning the toss elected to bat first and scored 122 runs all out in 24.2 overs.

Ajay Giri and Ramu Yadav scored 33 and 32 runs, respectively, for UP policemen. Manish Sharma and Shekhar Arya took three wickets each. In reply, Garhwal Heores were all out for 94 runs in 22 overs. Chand Babu remained the top scorer with 29 runs. Sanjeev Kapasia took three wickets for 13 runs while Ajay Giri and Atul Singh took two wickets each.

In the second match played at the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy ground, the Vidhya Jain Cricket Academy team from Delhi defeated the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) team by only four runs.

The Vidhya Jain Cricket Academy team after winning the toss and electing to bat frst scored 128 runs all out in 24.1 overs. Ankit Chaudhary with 31 runs was the top scorer. Abhishek Sharma took three wickets for 20 runs.

In reply, LDA, Lucknow team was all out for 124 runs losing the match by 4 runs. Javed was only batsman who scored 27 runs. Kapil Bhatti took four wickets for 18 runs.

Dehradun, February 17
Uttarakhand Congress will organise a social welfare camp in Dehradun on February 18. Addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, senior Congress leader Devendra Sethi disclosed that a camp would be organised at Sadhuram School, Kanwali, on February 18. He said Social Welfare Minister Surendra Rakesh would inaugurate the camp.

He disclosed that problems linked to old age pensions, widow and disability pensions would be taken up for redressal at the camp. He appealed to the concerned people to take full advantage of the camp.

Sethi also reminded that Dehradun city was witnessing unprecedented development. He said the proposals to the tune of Rs 6 crores had been approved for construction of road in Dehradun cantonment constituency.

Dehradun February 17
The state unit of the Samajwadi Party today burnt the effigy of the Centre on the issue of petrol hike. City president Pradeep Chaudhary said if the Centre did not roll back the hike then they would start an agitation on the roads of the city.

He said the UPA government had been unsuccessful in reining in inflation and had been burdening public with the constant rise in the prices of LPG, petrol and diesel.

He said if the government did not withdraw the hike, then they would go on roads to hold a movement on the issue.

Among those who protested on the occasion include party members Sudha Rani, Kesar Jahan, Meena Rana, Rajesh, Sumit Singh, Rajat Kaushik, Sagar, Virender Chauhan and Saamir Khan.