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Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour in Doon
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CM assures help to disaster victims before Char Dhaam Yatra begins
Kedarnath shrine portals to reopen on May 4
Dhami offers Assembly seat to Harish Rawat
Will quit work from March 2 if our demands are not met: CEO, DVWM
Haridwar development projects running behind schedule
Lokayukta Act brought by Khanduri now becomes null and void
Surge in demand for work under MGNREGS
DGP inspects ongoing training of City Patrol Unit personnel
Accident victim’s kin gherao police station
Rajeev Sharma is new Bar body president
Drug peddler arrested
2 thieves arrested for stealing a mobile
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Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour in Doon
Dehradun, February 27 Thousands of devotees thronged various temples to worship Lord Shiva and Parvati. However, the famous Tapkeshwar temple of Lord Shiva witnessed the maximum number of devotees who were standing in long queues waiting for their turn to worship the lord. In their bid to make the day even more special, the temple committees left no stone unturned to ensure the beautification of
temple premises. Decorations comprising lights and flowers were seen at a number of temples where the devotees had started thronging the temples in the wee hours. A large quantity of milk was offered at the Tapkeshwar temple and about 15,000 bananas, along with kesar milk, were distributed as prasad
among the devotees by the Shri Tapkeshwar Mandir Seva Dal. Large devotees also thronged Prithivinath mandir where a mass feasting was also
organised. Mahashivratri was observed at Panchayati mandir, Jungam Shivalaya and Sanatan Dharam mandir,
Dehradun. |
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Beeline for Shiva temples in Kumaon on Mahashivratri
Pithoragarh, February 27 Various Shiva temples which have repute of Puranik fame in the region were full of devotees on the occasion. The famous Shiva temples, some of which are considered as dhams in the region, are Bageswar, Jageswar, Baleswar, Pancheswar and Rameswar. Besides these dhams, other Shiva temples were also full of devotees on the occasion. In the Champawat district, which is considered the original capital of medieval era Chand kings of Kumaon, the devotees thronged at 7 main Shiva temples of Baleswar, Tarkeswar, Mallareswar, Hareswar, Risheswar Maneswar and Dipteswar, right from early morning despite rainy conditions today. ''According to legend, the combined visits to these temples on Mahashivratri day gives the devotee gains like what it get out of Saptkoshi Parikroma on Ayodhya,'' said Dinesh Pandey, a priest in the temple of Baleswar. In Almora district, people in large numbers thronged Jageswar temple on the occasion of Shivratri. ''The devotees in the temple are mostly women as legend says that childless women get boon of children after worship at Jageswar Dham on the occasion of Shivratri,'' said Buddhiballabh Bhatt, a priest of the temple. Bagnath temple at Bageswar district was full of devotees today as Bagnath is considered the main protector deity of the region. The devotees reached the temple from Kapkot , Almora, Pithoragarh, Champawat and even from Nainital district of the region to worship Lord Bagnath on the occasion of Mahashivratri today. ''Worship of Lord Bagnath after taking a dip in the Saryu river today is considered a boon for the devotees in his world and after death,'' said Ghanshyam Joshi, a devotee in the temple. |
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Despite inclement weather, devotees pray at temples
Mussoorie, February 27 Incessant rain and hail since last night continued all morning, but it failed to dampen the spirits of the devotees who observed fasts and offered prayers in various temples around the town. Many temples also offered ‘bhaang’ to the devotees even as the police remained vigilant to avoid any untoward incident. The villagers from nearby villages visited the historic Nag temple and offered their prayers to mark the occasion. Meanwhile at Uttarkashi, devotees thronged the famous Vishwanath temple to offer prayers. Despite heavy rains, long queues were seen outside the temple. A religious procession accompanied with traditional drums and chants of - Har Har Mahadev - was also taken out from the market to the temple here. |
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CM assures help to disaster victims before Char Dhaam Yatra begins
Dehradun, February 27 He added, “The state government will ensure that local businessmen as well as the Teerth Purohit Samaj can continue with their earlier work of serving the needs of the pilgrims. A comprehensive plan is in operation for the welfare of the Teerth Purohit Samaj.” He said the loss suffered by the ‘purohits’ and business community had been divided in various categories. Those who suffered losses between Rs 10-20 lakh would be provided exemption up to 20 per cent. The government is also considering providing 50 per cent of the losses suffered by the Teerth Purohits under the Vir Chandra Singh Garhwali Tourism Self-Employment Scheme. CM Harish Rawat said along with this, steps
would also be taken on issues raised by the Teerth Purohit Samaj. Congress MLA form Kedarnath, Shaila Rani, who was a part of the delegation, expressed gratitude to the CM and said the CM had solved their problems. Kedar Sabha president Shankar Prasad Bagwadi; president, Vyapar Mahasangh, Prem Singh Sajwan; Devi Prasad Goswami, Shiv Prasad Bagwadi, Ram Prakash Purohit and Keshav Tiwari, were present at the occasion.
— TNS |
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Kedarnath shrine portals to reopen on May 4
Gopeshwar (Uttarakhand), February 27 The auspicious hour to open the gates of the shrine was finalised in the presence of religious heads, committee and administrative officials on the occasion of Mahashivratri on Thursday at Ukhimath in Rudraprayag district where an idol of the Hindu deity is worshipped during the winter sojourn, they said. The procession called Utsav Yatra of Lord Shiva, which precedes the gate opening ceremony, will begin from Ukhimath on April 30 and reach
Kedarnath on the evening of May 3, committee officials said. Announcing dates for the opening of the other three temples known as chardhams, Committee officials said while Badrinath in Chamoli district will be opened on May 5, Gangotri and Yamunotri will be opened for devotees on May 2 on the occasion of Akshya Tritiya. A large number of devotees visit the char dhams located in Garhwal Himalayas every year. Though the region suffered extensive damage in the deluge last year with a vast network of roads still breached, the state government claims they will be repaired well before the start of the chardham yatra season. Kedar valley suffered most of the damage in the June flash floods.
— PTI |
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Dhami offers Assembly seat to Harish Rawat
Pithoragarh, February 27 “It will beneficial for the residents of this area if Harish Rawat contests for the Assembly seat, from here. I am ready to offer my seat for my leader,” said Dhami, during his speech before the Chief Minister on Wednesday. Though, the Chief Minister termed Dhami’s move ‘emotional and immature’, he did comment on the matter saying that the decision to contest for an Assembly seat would be taken after the disaster-affected people from the area were properly rehabilitated. “Dhami’s speech was the emotional outburst of a loyal follower, but I have not made up my mind on the subject yet,” said the Chief Minister. Despite this, the CM made a volley of announcement during his speech which included upgrading the urban bodies of Dharchula and Munsiyari towns, a motor road to link Chamoli district from Pithoragarh, construction of 50 km motor roads in disaster affected area . “The key announcement made by Harish Rawat was the opening of an agricultural university in Pithoragarh district to promote farming of plants on the lines of Malabar hills of Kerala and opening of a handloom cluster at Dharchula.” said Dhami. The CM also announced waiver of the recovery of illegally taken disaster relief money by some families and emphasised on development of woollens industry for employment generation by announcing a manufacturing plant at Dharchula, Munsiyari, Didihat and Bageswar. |
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Cong workers take out march to support Harak Singh
Haridwar, February 27 Chairperson of Agricultural Production Committee, Jwalapur, Sanjay Chopra, said, “Harak Singh has always been a statehood agitator, mass leader. Owing to his stature in the state politics as well as state government, a political conspiracy has been hatched.” He added, “Harak Singh has been into active politics since 1991, winning from Pauri, Lansdowne, Srinagar and Rudraprayag, which points out his mass popularity among the people of the state. Recently, he was among the frontrunner's for the post of the Chief Minister too, so one cannot rule out that many politicians consider him a threat to their political career.” While, peasant leader Bhoopendra Rajput urged Chief Minister Harish Rawat to not to seek resignation of Harak Singh, as the allegations were baseless, instead the CM should wait for police investigations that would clear all doubts that have surfaced over the character of the party leader. Supporters also cited the allegations of a woman a few years back made against Harak Singh, which later were found to be baseless during investigations. Party workers from Jwalapur also came out in support of the leader and said the minister was being framed in this case. While city Congress unit president OP Chauhan said as Delhi police had filed a case in this regard, he could not say anything officially in this matter. |
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Will quit work from March 2 if our demands are not met: CEO, DVWM
Dehradun, February 27 On February 1, irked over the non-fulfillment of their demands despite repeated requests, the DVWM had served a one-month termination notice to the DMC for ending its contract of door-to-door collection and disposal of waste. In the notice, the private player had asked the civic body to clear its dues within 30 days. In the contract termination letter addressed to the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar, the company said the DMC had failed to fulfill its contractual obligations under the concession agreement signed between the
DMC and the DVWM for the execution of solid waste management project in Dehradun. Based on the notice served to the
DMC, the company would stop lifting the garbage from March 2. Among the major demands put up by the DVWM, the foremost was the provision of the land at Bramhawala where a transfer station would be set up to bring in the garbage for segregation. They also demanded revision of existing tipping fee paid by the DMC from Rs 350 per metric tonne to Rs 462. The company also demanded an immediate release of the Rs 6.5
crore received for the project from the Central Government. On Thursday, a high level meeting including Secretary (urban development) DS Gabriyal, Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar and CEO DVWM Sandeep Jain was held at the DMC office. Giving details of the meeting, MNA Ashok Kumar said they tried to resolve the issue amicably. “An MoU had been signed for a period of 15 years between the state government and the DVWM. The company is now acting like class IV employees by threatening to quit the work in case their demands are not met,” said Kumar. Gabriyal said, “We would definitely like the DVWM to continue with the project, but in case they have made up their mind to stop their services, we cannot force them. A final meeting has been called again on Friday.” Making it clear that they wont accept the assurances from the government, DVWM CEO Sidharth Jain said, “From past one year the state government has given nothing but false assurances for fulfilling our demands. This time
we have decided to quit the work in case the demands are not met. We are running into losses worth several lakhs ever since we took the project two years back. In case the state government does not meet our
demands in the meeting on Friday, we will quit the work from March 2.” |
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Haridwar development projects running behind schedule
Haridwar, February 27 In year 2007 under Central Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Development Mission, 12 intersections falling in the city periphery were to be renovated, expanded and developed by PWD ,with a budget of Rs 17. 65 crore.The intersections identified under this project were Jai Ram Ashram ,Hill bypass Khadkhadi,Tulsi square,Shiv Moorti square, Agrasen square (Devpura square),Pt Madan Mohan Malviya square(Rishikul), Chandracharya square(Ranipur mod), Arya Nagar square, Pull Jatwada,Kathaira bazaar and Desh Rakshak square. The initial project completion dateline was projected to be March 2012, but two more years have passed since then but on ground level little work has been done. The work got started just after Maha Kumbh fair 2010, but failed to accelerate in coming years. Work, that too at a snail’s pace, has been going on at only seven such squares, while in the rest work has not still started, putting questions on the working of the Public Work Department as well as on the bureaucracy and political representatives ,who seem to have turned a blind eye on this project's working. Citing hurdles in land acquisition, PWD executive engineer Anirudh Singh Bhandari said that due to this aspect his department has not been able to start work at five intersections. Many a residential houses and commercial establishments are situated near these intersections-for which land acquisition is imperative. Bhandari added that encroachments by influential persons, some of which belong to major political parties, have also put a brake on this project. “As a result the department has decided to return Rs 3.33 crore back, as despite repeated attempts ,owing to limited resources we failed to either acquire land or remove encroachments. The district administration, state government, political parties, public representatives as well as local people's cooperation is also needed for such development projects” he added. |
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Scientists feliciated with NDRC meritorious awards
Dehradun, February 27 A public sector enterprise under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) is engaged in developing, up-scaling, licensing and commercialising indigenous technologies. Dr R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, distributed prizes to 25 innovators for their 10 inventions. Dr Gairola, member Secretary, National Innovation Council, in his key note address, highlighted new programmes launched by the Innovation Council and the initiatives undertaken for setting up a Cluster Innovation Centre across the country. He said in each state, Innovation Councils had been set up. The Government of India had created corpus fund to the tune Rs 5,000 crore for Bharat Nirman Innovation Fund. He said academicians, researchers and industry should work in the mission mode to accelerate the development of globally competitive technologies and work in synergy with industry to optimally utilise the indigenous resources. The awardees included, Dr V Shubha, Dr TG Ramesh, G Sivakumar, A Arul Paligan and R Krishnamurthy of National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangaluru, (Drishti Transmissometer - A visibility measuring system for airport operations). |
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Lokayukta Act brought by Khanduri now becomes null and void
Dehradun, February 27 Significantly, as the new Act which has now become a law has been adopted from the Central Government Act would also give powers to the state government to recommend action against the All India Service officers working on different posts in the state government. ''As the state government has adopted the Act passed by Parliament, it will have no problem in recommending action against the All India Service bureaucrats (Section 63 of Uttarakhand Lokpal/Lokayukta Act 2014,'' said RS Tolia, former Chief Information Commissioner. Further, all the other five Acts such as the Vigilance Act, CBI Act too would be deemed amended. Several provisions in the previous Lokayukta Act brought by former CM BC Khanduri were termed ''unconstitutional'' by the previous Vijay Bahuguna government. The new Lokayukta is being hailed as practical. ''Khanduri's Lokayukta, which was inspired by social activist Anna Hazare got lost in the quagmire of technicalities. Several provisions in the Act in case it was implemented would not have been able to stand up to the scrutiny by courts. Some of the provisions such as the state government giving directives to the Supreme Court to act upon it's recommendations and the entire process of selection of Lokayukta and its members, in which total unanimity had to prevail, was too tedious a process,'' said a senior law officer. Now the state government will have to notify the new Act in the coming 180 days and then set up a search committee within 45 days for the appointment of the Lokayukta and other members. |
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Surge in demand for work under MGNREGS
Dehradun, February 27 This has given enough indication that the rural job employment scheme has proved to be a boon for the disaster ravaged people of the state, providing them work in the hour of need. The officials in the Department of Rural Development say that a total of 152.96 mandays were generated in the month of January 2014 against the 120 lakh mandays in January 2013. “The need-based works comprising removing of silt, mud from houses and farmland, construction of bridges and repair of small link roads were taken by the villagers who did not have any source of income as they had lost everything in the disaster. All these works were need based,” said Arvind Khanduri, Executive Director, MGNREGS. The beneficiaries (unskilled workers) were paid wages at the rate of Rs 142 per day and efforts were made towards providing jobs to them not far from their homes. As a relief measure instead of guarantee of 100 days work, work was provided for 150 days. A total of Rs 338 crore were spent by the 13 districts of the state by January 2014. Out of this the district of Tehri managed to spend the highest amount at the tune of Rs 60 crore, followed by Rs 52 crore by Chamoli, Rs 20 crore by Rudraparayag, Rs 31 crore by Uttarkashi, and Rs 37 crore by Pithoragarh districts at the end of January 2014. In 2013 for the month of January a total amount of Rs 241 crore was spent by districts. However, totally devastated by disaster last year, the villagers took a long while to get their bearing right and look for jobs. |
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DGP inspects ongoing training of City Patrol Unit personnel
Dehradun, February 27 It is to be noted that in the first stage, the City Patrol Unit is being constituted in Dehradun and later it will be introduced in Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts as well. The City Patrol Unit has been set up with an aim of traffic enforcement, containment of incidents of road accidents and intervention in road crimes. A unit of City Patrol Unit consists of one sub-inspector and one constable, who will be given one motor cycle, wireless set and video camera and they will be video recording all the activities during any incident. The unit will be constantly in touch with the control room and activities will be logged in the control room via wireless set. According to the officials, 10 units of City Patrol Unit will be deployed in the first phase in Dehradun once the training of the handpicked police personnel is over. It is noteworthy that one light vehicle will also be deployed. |
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Accident victim’s kin gherao police station
Dehradun, February 27 Reportedly, on Wednesday night, when Deepak was going towards his home in Thakarpur via Shyampur, he was hit by a speeding car from behind. He was taken to the nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The accused Akash who hails from Jaipur and is studying law in Dehradun was driving the car allegedly under the influence of alcohol when he had hit Deepak. In an attempt to flee from there after hitting Deepak, he even smashed his car with the boundary wall of one house and damaged it. He was later nabbed by the cops from his hostel. Incidentally, the locals from Thakurpur also joined the parents and relatives of the victim on Wednesday night and demanded strict action against the illegal mushrooming of student hostels in the area. Meanwhile, a case has been registered against Akash and the police have assured the agitators of taking strict action so that in future such incidents do not take place. |
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Dip in temperatures again
Dehradun, February 27 Meanwhile, Dehradun had heavy showers on Wednesday night and continued most part of the day today, bringing down the temperature levels. |
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Himalayan Cricket Academy win DPL
Dehradun, February 27 Batting first, Rao Cricket Academy scored 157 runs with Dipankar scoring maximum 45 runs and Kiran Singh making 38 runs. For Himalayan Cricket Academy, Harjeet took 2 wickets. In reply, Himalayan Academy got off to a brilliant start with opener Vijay Singh making blistering 112 runs and taking his team to a 9-wicket victory. On the other hand, for Rao Cricket Academy, Kiran Singh took the only wicket against Himalayan Academy team. Vijay Singh was adjudged man of the match for his brilliant century. Vijay also won the man of the series award.
— TNS |
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Rajeev Sharma is new Bar body president
Dehradun, February 27 On the other hand, serving secretary Raghuveer Singh Kaitath has been elected for the same post, after defeating Anil Pandit. Prakash Pal has been elected as the vice-president, while Bhanu Prasad Sisodiya is the new joint secretary of the Bar Association of Dehradun. The newly elected president, Rajeev Sharma Bantu, said his first priority would be to minimise the number of strikes done by lawyers. He said insurance schemes would be started for the junior lawyers.
— TNS His priority...
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Drug peddler arrested
Dehradun, February 27 On suspicion and after checking, a large number of illegal drug tablets and injections were seized from him. The police are claiming that the accused Gaurav Kumar, resident of
Haridwar, had told them during interrogation that he was suppose to supply the tablets and injections to his customers who were mostly young boys studying in private colleges. |
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2 thieves arrested for stealing a mobile
Dehradun, February 27 Police claimed that Rahul had a number of cases registered against him in Haridwar. Rahul and Chetan visited the mobile store and allegedly stole a mobile phone worth Rs 18,000 from the shop.
— TNS |
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