Policemen celebrate Holi at the Araghar police post in Dehradun on Thursday. A Tribune photograph

Rock band enthrals
Mussoorie, March 28
A rock concert was here today for the jawans of the Indian-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and their family members here. The programme was held to mark the festival of Holi. Local rock band Gensis captivated the audience with their melodious music.

Rock band Gensis gives a performance in Mussoorie on Thursday.

Dharna by class IV govt staff continues
Dehradun, March 28
Class IV employees of the state government continued their protest dharna at the Raipur bus station here today.





Class IV employees of the state government hold a protest dharna in support of their demands in Dehradun on Thursday.

SJ academy victorious
Dehradun, March 28
SJ Cricket Academy, Jaipur, defeated Karmyal Cricket Academy, Bageshwar, by six wickets in a match during the 5th All-India Uttarakhand Cricket Cup-2013 played at Rangers’ College, here today.


A batsman in action during a match in the 5th All-India Uttarakhand Cricket Cup-2013 in Dehradun on Thursday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Dehradun, March 28
Holi may be over but Dehradun city as per an estimate wasted 6000 lakh litres of water in the celebrations on the Holi day apart from its daily routine consumption on that day. Dehradun normally consumes 1320 lakh litres water daily. But on festival like Holi this consumption jumps phenomenally. According to estimates by Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology, Dehradun city wasted an additional 6000 lakh litres of water on Holi celebrations yesterday, which is quite high by any standards.

DP Uniyal, scientist Ucost, asserted that that this unnecessary wastage of water on Holi in Dehradun could have been utilised for other useful purpose on subsequent days. He said drinking water scarcity has been a major problem in Dehradun.

Other scientists too stress on a check on useless wastage of water. “Significantly, while there has been appeal in some parts of the country towards resorting more to dry colour Holi, no such initiative has come up in a place like Dehradun”, argues another scientist Brijmohan Sharma.

He said society needs to be awakened about the fact that ''we cannot waste precious substance like water just in the name of celebrations when many in society are even deprived of water to fulfil their basic needs.''

Meanwhile, the festival of Holi brings with it the spirit of togetherness and good cheer. The festival symbolises the victory of good over the evil. People light a bonfire called ‘Holika’ on the eve of the festival and celebrate the devotion to God.

The Holi celebrations at Unison World School began with lighting of bonfire on March 26 by the Principal and administrator of the school.

Dehradun, March 28
With the Dehradun Municipal Corporations elections round the corner, speedy repair of roads have been started in Dehradun.

Dehradun District Magistrate BVRC Purshottam has given orders to his subordinate officers to ensure that all road repair activities are conducted on a war footing.

He, in particular, asked the state Public Works Department to undertake speedy repair of roads in the city.

The DM has also asked for maintaining quality of construction on the roads.

Meanwhile, Dehradun MLAs too have geared up for the civic poll and are themselves inspecting the conduct of repair works. Raipur MLA Umesh Sharma asserted that better roads had always been his priority and he had been working for repairing the rain-damaged roads of his constituency for the past many months. He admitted that a delay in the release of funds was the hindrance in conduct of road repair activities.

Dehradun, March 28
Uttarakhand Chief Secretary has directed the officials of the Urban Development Department to make planned developmental schemes in the cities and towns of the city, taking into consideration environmental concerns. He said that such plans should be made which do not create unnecessary controversies. Jain was presiding over a review meeting of the Urban Developmental Department at the Secretariat here today.

He directed that enough parking spaces be identified and built in Dehradun-Mussoorie areas and other urban areas of the state so that the problem of traffic congestion could be addressed. He sad that government land should be identified for parking lots in Dehradun, Mussoorie, Haridwar and Haldwani and other cities and towns on priority basis. Jain further said that if government land was not available, than private land owners be involved in building parking lots. ''The private land owners should be involved in a public-private partnership mode and made part of profits from such parking spaces,” he said.

He also directed the officials to ensure better water supply and directed that the plan to give metered water connection should be speeded up. He opined that metered water supply would reduce wastage of water.

Dehradun, March 28
Class IV employees of the state government continued their protest dharna at the Raipur bus station here today.

Hundreds of employees raised slogans against the state government and in support of their demands. They said their protest would continue till their demands were met.

They are demanding that they be given pay as per the Central pay scale of Rs 5,200-20,200 with grade pay of Rs 1,800 and with effect from January 1, 2004.

Dehradun, March 28
SJ Cricket Academy, Jaipur, defeated Karmyal Cricket Academy, Bageshwar, by six wickets in a match during the 5th All-India Uttarakhand Cricket Cup-2013 played at Rangers’ College, here today.

Batting first, the Karmyal team scored scored 159 runs all out in 30 overs. Opener Shrishit scored 64 runs.

Manish Sharma and Poonam Ponia took three wickets each.

In reply, SJ Cricket Academy scored 162 runs for four wickets winning the match by six wickets.

Opener Jobanpreet scored 41 runs while Kushal Agarwal scored 41 unbeaten runs.