Haridwar, May 25
Haridwar district police chief Arun Mohan Joshi, taking cognisance of unabated quarrying going on at Pathri area, and finding laxity by police personnel, has suspended SHO, Pathri, TS Rana ,Pherupur police in charge, Vidya Dutt Joshi, and sought explanation from all the police personnel posted in these police stations.

Admitting that despite a ban on quarrying in the area, quarrying was going on for the past few weeks. Arun Mohan Joshi, taking it as moral responsibility, has also replaced Kankhal Circle Officer Jodh Ram Joshi ,attaching him to Police Lines,Roshanabad. Arun Mohan Joshi took this decision after taking cognisance of several complaints of laxity by the police at Pathri in regard to illegal quarrying being done by quarrying mafia, particularly during night.

Last night A special Quick Response Team was sent to the quarrying-affected spots where it was found that mass scale quarrying was being done, while the police did not take any action against the violators. Also, it was found that quarrying material was not being intercepted or checked by Pathri and Pherupur police post personnel at the spot.Two JCB machines and seven trolleys involved in illegal quarrying were seized by the QRT team,while the drivers fled from the spot ,taking benefit of the darkness. All these vehicles have been seized and handed over to Pathri police station.

Finding sheer laxity and suspecting a nexus between police personnel and quarrying mafia, Joshi today attached CO, Kankhal, Jodh Ram Joshi, to Police Lines and suspended with immediate effect Pathri police station SHO TS Rana and Pherupur police post in charge Vidya Dutt Joshi.

Talking to TNS, Joshi said that an enquiry had been set up in this regard, which has been handed over to Superintendent of Rural Police Ajay Singh,who has been asked to complete the enquiry in seven days. Warning all SHOs, Joshi made it categorically clear that if similar instances of quarrying took place in the near future, respective station in charges will be liable for explanation.''Make it sure that no illegal quarrying takes place in the respective police station areas, otherwise SHOs will be accountable for it. Though to stop quarrying-related work the Police Department is not directly involved, yet we have to ensure that illegal quarrying doesn't take place in our police station periphery,'' warned Joshi.

Haridwar, May 25
With just a year left for 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and buoyed by the emphatic victory for his close aide Manoj Garg in the just held Mayor elections, three-time city legislator Madan Kaushik today held a party workers' meeting at party office.

Dehradun, May 25
Despite the fact that the District Social Welfare Department has not been able to get funds from the Centre for scholarship for children belonging to the Other Backward Community (OBC), influential people or politicians are facilitating these children to get admission to educational institutions.

This is creating a conflict between educational institutions and the Social Welfare Department. The children are suffering from both ends. They are being bullied by institutions for funds from the Social Welfare Department or from their own resources. The department, on the other hand, does not give them a clear picture and make them do rounds of its office. The careers of many such children are at stake.

District Social Welfare Officer Ram Avtar, who is due to retire in June, is still releasing funds for next months. District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam said, “The administration cannot help in the matter as people associated with politics garner votes by facilitating admission of children belonging to the OBC community to educational institutions. They do not bother to check with the District Social Welfare Officer or they prefer to ignore it. This creates problems for educational institutions as well as children who are studying in higher classes and can lose precious years.”

The case of two Muslim girls, who went to study up to Bachelor of Business Administration despite their poor background, is more touching. Kahkashan, whose father loads sacks of grains at Adat Bazaar, and Ayesha, whose father works with a tailor, have got admission to the BBA course in the Uttarakhand Institute of Science and Technology. The institute has threatened to stop their further studies if they do not pay their fees of the past three semesters.

Kahkashan said the institute initially held up their admit cards before the first semester exams and now it was not allowing them to sit in the class. The transportation facility extended to them had also been discontinued.

“Each time we met the District Magistrate, he facilitated removal of hurdles. But now the institute is demanding the payment of fee of all three semesters amounting to Rs 1.20 lakh,” she said.

Dehradun, May 25
An initiative of it's kind, Society for Inclusive Development has brought together 80 youths from 18 states of the country to Dehradun, who would now be sharing their entrepreneur skills with people of Uttarakhand aiming mutual benefits.

Himalayan Yuva Prerna Yatra (HYPY), as the programme has been identified, started today at Doon University campus with Senior Uttarakhand Forest officer Arup Bannerji referring to the fruitful initiatives undertaken by him in the sphere of eco tourism and thus creating livelihood opportunities for the local youths.

Arup Banerjee shared his real life experience of starting community-based tourism model in Dhanolti , where Forest Department has designed very successful and win win model with local communities , who are responsible for maintaining and sustaining innovative programme, ''Dhanolty Eco Park,'' and able to create employment for more than 30 village youths.

Anil Jaggi, head, Society for Inclusive Development, disclosed, “The Himalayan Yuva Prerna Yatra is an opportunity for the youth of the country to explore Himalayas and bring prosperity through entrepreneurship. It is a unique mission of its kind in the country which is directly connecting youth with rural India and its various innovative interventions at rural mountain regions.”

Ritesh Garg, board member of HYPY, briefed about the possibilities of linking youths with local economy and how such initiatives are essentially important to revive rural economy. Manoj Sharma, another board member, gave his talk on the agenda of the programme and how Indian youth can bring bring a change in the landscape of development by using local human and natural resources.

Later interacting with the The Tribune, Jinesh Parakh, young engineer working for Chennai Metro, said he along with his friend Pawan Gupta, another engineer, was coming all the way from Chennai to learn and explore Himalayas. ''We have one common dream and chasing it is to explore new business opportunities in rural India and link their professional knowhow and passion for the betterment of local communities,'' Jinesh said.

Another budding entrepreneur and IIT-Roorkie engineer Ashish Arora said he was from Himachal Pradesh and wants to help young participants with his vast knowledge and previous experience to mentor similar rural based-developmental projects in their respective states.

More than 10 budding female entrepreneurs are also participating in HYPY from Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal. The participants in the 5-day yatra will be going for field visits to Naugaon, Kempty, Dhaonlty, Chamba and Haridwar.

Dehradun, May 25
The work on the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation of India Medical College in Haridwar will begin soon. The medical college will also have a hospital. Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar met Union Labour Secretary Mrityunjay Sarangi in New Delhi in this context yesterday.

He assured the Chief Secretary that the ESIC team would go to Haridwar within two weeks and give its’ report. After that construction of the college can begin. The team would inspect the land identified for the proposed college.

The Chief Secretary assured the Secretary that the land would immediately be transferred to the ESIC and the state government would give all possible support to the project.

Dehradun, May 25
Owing to a sudden increase in the demand for energy, the power department has to buy energy on everyday basis, despite having struck power banking with the private players. The department has given toll free numbers to consumers for the registration of power-related complaints.

Prakash Joshi, junior engineer, Vasant Vihar, said since morning he had received 15 complaints on the toll free numbers given by the department. He said more calls were expected in the coming days, as more people were coming to know of the toll-free facility.

According to an official, Rs 1 crore had been purchased by the department for the arrangement of 30 MU for Saturday. Yesterday, there was a two-hour power cut in the Garhwal and Kumaon areas.

A power cut was scheduled for Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm in the areas coming under the Power Distribution division of Pauri due to the repair of 33 KV Srinagar Jal Sansthan feeder and Ransi feeder. Similarly, due to the repair of 11 KV Vasant Vihar feeder and 11 KV Engineer Enclave feeder, the power supply was scheduled to remain suspended partially during the day in the area coming under the city Power Distribution Division. The Turner road, Niranjanpur and Vasant Vihar come under this division.

Dehradun, May 25
The traffic police has begun a campaign against unruly Vikram (auto-operated on sharing basis) drivers in the city. Under this, one city bus, four autos and 20 Vikram drivers have been issued challans by traffic police.Vikrams were checked on the common spots where the drivers pick up and drop commuters such as Parade Ground, Kanwali Road, Clock Tower, Chakrata Road and ISBT. The Vikrams which were not carrying the mandatory documents, carrying more than permitted number of commuters, plying on non-permissible routes, were challaned.

After Vikram drivers were found involved in a number of fatal accidents in the city, the traffic police tightened its belt against them in this regard. Circle Office, Traffic, Harbans Singh,said the complaints were coming about Vikram drivers driving recklessly on the roads for a long time, which was why they had started a campaign against them.

The issue which city bus drivers raised against Vikram plying on Clock Tower and on the route of Parade Ground to Parval to Prem Nagar without any permission, which was affecting their business, was also taken up by Singh seriously. He said city bus drivers need not go for strike on May 27, as they have announced, because he himself would examine the matter.