Corbett Gypsy Kalyan Samiti holds protest

Ramnagar: Corbett Gypsy Kalyan Samiti was held protest and jammed the national highway at the gate of Corbett National Park office, here, today. They were demanding cancellation of reservation facility before 52 hours in day session in the Corbett National Park.
Today, a large number of gypsy drivers of the Park gathered at the gate of Corbett Park office and held protest and jammed the National Highway in pursuance of their demands. According to new system, any tourist could reserve their entry 52 hours ago. They said that all gypsy drivers were facing lot of problems due to new reservation system. They said that they would launched a big agitation if Corbett administration did not accept their demands. After the Corbett Administration held talks with agitators, they withdrew their dharna. However, they gave a two day ultimatum to the Corbett Park Administration to take suitable action on their demand.

Tiwari reviews projects initiated by him in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: After lying low for about a month following his resignation from Andhra Pradesh Governor's post in the wake of a sex scandal, veteran Congress leader N D Tiwari has started reviewing projects initiated during his tenure as chief minister of Uttarakhand.
Tiwari, who denied his involvement in the entire sting episode, has decided to review all big projects which were initiated when he was the chief minister of the state as part of a political strategy, sources close to Tiwari told an agency. Tiwari, who is staying at his palatial house on Forest Research Institute campus -- allotted to him when he was chief minister in 2007 – on Tuesday visited sites of the Doon University and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Rishikesh and enquired about various works. "Tiwari will bounce back but that all depends on the mood of Congress President Sonia Gandhi," said a congress leader. Meanwhile, state congress president Yashpal Arya is understood to have promised full support of the state congress to Tiwari, who has the rare distinction of becoming chief ministers of two states-undivided Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Administration, Akharas gear up for first 'shahi snaan'

Haridwar: Mela administration as well as various Akharas are gearing up for the first 'shahi snaan' of the ongoing Mahakumbh mela to be held on the occasion of Mahashivratri on February 12.
Timing of the bath during which only sadhus and saints belonging to various Akharas can take the bath have been fixed from 11 am to 5 pm, officials said.
The timing for other pilgrims would be either before 10 am or after 5 pm. The 'shahi snaan' would begin at 11 am with the arrival of Joona Akhara, largest group of Naga Sadhus, at Har-ki-Pauri and end with Anand Akhara, they said, adding there would be a gap of one hour between the baths of two Akharas. Kumbh Mela Superintendent of Police Ajay Joshi said administration has made elaborate arrangements for the day and security personnel belonging to Rapid Action Force, ITBP, state police, PAC and bomb disposal squads, water police and home guards have been deployed on Har-Ki-Pauri. No vehicles would be allowed to ply on the roads within the urban limit of Haridwar on the day, Joshi said. Meanwhile, Akhil Bhartiya Akhara Parishad has decided to include Chaitra Purnima as the day of 'shahi snaan', taking the number of total such baths during Mahakumbh to 4. In its meeting, presided over by Parishad President Mahant Gyan Das, it was decided that various Akharas would also take bath on the day of Chaitra Purnima on March 30. Earlier, Mahashivratri (Feb 12), Somvati Amavasya (Mar 15), Mesh Sankranti (Apr 14) were declared as days of 'Shahi Snaans'.

SP welcomes ‘Peshwai Shobha Yatra’

Haridwar: The ‘Peshwai Shobha Yatra’ was today welcomed by the Samajwadi Party near its office in Laltara Bridge area.
SP City President, Dr Rajendra Parashar led dozens of party supporters in garlanding the holy men and sadhus, and sought blessings for being able to serve the nation with commitment and zeal.

Rock testing causing cracks in power station?

CHAMOLI: Rock testing being carried out under the Devsari Hydro-Power Project has resulted in several cracks emerging in the 33 KV Power Station at Nandkesri.
According to Engineer DP Khanduri, the rock testing was being carried out below the Power Station by the undertaking agencies Satluj Hydro-Power Corporation, which had caused cracks in the power station as well as its adjacent buildings. Khanduri disclosed that a letter had been written to the Corporation and the SDM, Tharali, in this regard.
On the other hand, General Manager, Satluj Hydro-Power Corporation, Shankarnarainan totally rubbished the possibility of cracks being caused by rock testing. He maintained that controlled blasts were carried out while rock testing. He asserted that the rock testing was of small perimeter and intensity and there was no possibility of cracks being caused by it.
In the meanwhile, local people have vehemently opposed the rock testing for the fear that the buildings of the area might suffer further cracks.

Valentine’s Day promises unusual view of Jupiter

Nainital: According to the scientists of NASA, Valentine’s Day this year will witness what Galileo did 400 years ago in early 1610. It is hard to see Jupiter in the evening sky this month, but the northern hemisphere observers may see Jupiter and Venus close together and low on the southwestern horizon on Valentine’s Day. Jupiter’s largest moons were first seen on 7 January in 1610 in Padua, Italy. Galileo looked above the constellation Orion. He aimed his telescope at the well known starry wanderer, the planet Jupiter, which was near Orion that night.
What he saw through his telescope startled him and marked the beginning of modern astronomy. Jupiter was not just one object, as he wrote and drew in his journal. “There are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury around the Sun,” he wrote. Galileo’s observation showed three stars. The one star to the west was Ganymede and to the east there were two objects - one was the moon Callisto and the other was a tight pairing of Io and Europa. Io and Europa appeared so close together that they looked like one object in Gallieo’s modest telescopic view. On 8 January, he saw a different line up altogether. There were three stars on the one side of the planet. lo was the moon closest to the planet, followed by Europa and Ganymede. Two cloudy nights and two additional observations later, on 13 January, Gallieo identified a fourth object orbiting Jupiter. The arrangement this night turned out to be Europa on the east and Ganymede, Io and Callisto on the west. On January 15, all four stars were seen on one side of the planet.

CTR places cage to trap leopard

Ramnagar: The Corbett Tiger Reserve administration has placed a cage in the jungle of Sarpduli range to trap the leopard that killed a woman of Sunderkhal village on Friday, when she was in the jungle to collect fuel wood.
After this incident, the CTR administration placed a cage there to trap the leopard and began patrolling by forest teams in the jungle.
Deputy Director CK Kavidyal told GP that the CTR administration had got permission to use the cage from the Chief Wildlife Warden. Following this, the CTR administration placed the cage in the jungle at the site of the incident. Forest teams also conducted patrols in the area with the help of departmental elephants. He appealed to the villagers for their cooperation in this matter.

RSS to hold ‘Nagrik Goshti’ in Ramnagar

Ramnagar: The Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS) will organise a ‘Nagrik Goshti’ here on 10 February. It will be held at the auditorium of the MP Inter College at 2 p.m. Members of the RSS held a meeting to prepare for the Goshti, here, today.
The ‘Nagrik Goshti’ will be organised with Dr BC Upreti (Principal of Ramnagar Degree College) in the chair.
The ‘Akhil Bhartiya Sah Pracharak Pramukh of RSS, Krishna Chandra Motlag will address the meet. The subject of the conference would be ‘Challenges and Solutions in North-East India’.
Advocate Suresh Chandra Gupta, Chandrashekhar Joshi, Advocate Narendra Rawat, Navin Bhatt, Rohit Goswami, Bhupendra Khati, Trilok Singh Gahtori, etc., were present at the meeting.

Krishi Panchang released by Trivendra Rawat

Dehradun: Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat released Krishi Panchang and Calendar published by Krishak Manjusha. at the Vidhan Sabha premises here today.
Rawat praised the efforts of Krishak Manjusha in bringing out useful information related to agriculture development in Uttarakhand in form of the Krishi Panchang.
Additional Secretary Horticulture, GS Pandey, Director Agriculture Madan Lal, Director Horticulture Dr BP Nautiyal, Director Fisheries, SR Chanyal, Director Animal Husbandry Dr AS Dhami and Editor Krishak Manjusha, Nagendra Tripathi were among those present on the occasion.

Live bomb found in Dwara Village

Dehradun: Panic was struck after a live bomb was found in the Raipur Dwara Gram Sabha area here today. However, the bomb disposal squad diffused the bomb in time.
On Saturday, morning the Village Pradhan, Surat Singh Negi informed the Raipur Police Station that a live bomb had been found lying in the village. Immediately, the police contacted the bomb disposal team and arrived at the site. The villagers heaved a sigh of relieve only after it was confirmed that the bomb had been diffused.
As per the information received from the police, the firing range of the army and Dwara village were very close from the site. It is speculated that the bomb might not have exploded during the test firing at the Army Range and instead landed at the site.

Workshop on ‘Saakshar Bharat’

Dehradun: “The Saakshar Bharat programme is not the Government of India’s alone, it is our programme and we all have to work as a strong team to achieve the goals of reducing gender disparity and achieving 80% literacy by 2012,” said Jagmohan Singh Raju, Joint Secretary and Director General, National Literacy Mission, speaking on the occasion of a day long “State level orientation workshop on Saakshar Bharat”, organised in collaboration with the State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) and State Resource Centre for Adult Education at the RLEK auditorium, here, today. The objective of this workshop was to discuss the state action plan and the implementation strategies for different stakeholders in the five districts of Uttarakhand, Tehri, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Champawat and Bageshwar where the literacy rates are below 50%.

Draw solutions from Indian belief system: Pant

Dehradun: State Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant gave away awards to 23 young scientists on the concluding day of the 2nd National Young Scientists Conference -2010. It was jointly organised by the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST), Dehradun, the Uttarakhand Science Education and Research Centre (USERC), Dehradun, Vigyana Bharti, Nagpur University and Doon University in the state capital today. While delivering his inaugural address, Pant said that India had developed due to its intellectual and spiritual integrity, which was reflected in its age old belief system. This had the power to offer relevant solutions to today’s science and technological challenges that humanity was facing.

Cultural programme showcases talent

Dehradun: In order to encourage talented youths and to make everyone familiar with the various aspects of art, a cultural programme was organised by the JKP Cultural Society and Event Management firm at the Hindi Bhawan today. The programme commenced after a “lamp lighting” ceremony performed by the Chief Guest.
The group claims to groom talent in the field of singing and dance, to aspire to and reach the competitive levels of ‘Indian Idol’, ‘Zee Saregamapa’, ‘Voice of India’, ‘Boogie-Woogie’ and “Dance India Dance’, etc., with the help of its supporting institute, “Sangam Kala”, Delhi. Many upcoming talents like Ishaan, Manoj, and Deepti Pant in singing and Manoj, Upasana and Sutyana for dancing participated in today’s programme.

Govt likely to invoke ESMA against striking employees

Dehradun: Government is mulling invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) after the striking employees of various departments continued to ignore the appeals and warnings issued. A final decision in this respect is likely to be taken by tomorrow.
Ministerial Employees meanwhile continued their strike for the 29th day today not taking any cognisance of the directives issued to them to return to work. Nearly 30,000 ministerial employees across the state are on strike since 11 January. An urgent meeting was summoned today by Chief Secretary NS Napalchyal to discuss the continuance of the strike by ministerial and other employees and invoking ESMA. The meeting continued till late into the evening and was attended by Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and senior police officers.
Highly placed sources indicated that a final decision on invoking ESMA was likely tomorrow once the deadline on returning to work got over. Action was likely against those who failed to join duty by tomorrow.

CM begins 3-day visit to Mauritius

Dehradun: Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ reached Mauritius today on a 3-day visit. This information was provided by the CM’s advisor Rajesh Naithani, who said that a high-profile meeting was held today to discuss arrangements for the CM’s visit there and also to oversee arrangements for the national festivals at the ‘Ganga Talav’ in Mauritius.
The meeting was attended by cabinet ministers in the Mauritian government, as well as distinguished guests. A group from the Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited, here, has reached Mauritius to assist the CM in his objective of working with the Mauritian government on projects related to Uttarakhand. During the course of his stay in Mauritius, the CM will hold several meetings with various organisations and associations, including Swastika, Arya Sabha, Service Trust and Sanatan Dharma among others.

Major Parth takes over as Gov’s ADC

Dehradun: On delegation from the Indian Army, Major Parth Pratim Roy Choudhary assumed duties at the Raj Bhawan here, today, as the ADC to the Governor, Margaret Alva.
Major Choudhary replaced Major Siddharth, who has returned to his original cadre in the Indian Army after completing the duration of his appointment at the Raj Bhawan. Major Siddharth was appointed on 13 November, 2006 and his tenure has been the longest till date among the appointments to the post at the Raj Bhawan. The Governor praised Major Siddharth for his discipline and efficiency. She wished him a bright future in the Army and presented him a memento on the occasion.

Major Parth takes over as Gov’s ADC

Dehradun: On delegation from the Indian Army, Major Parth Pratim Roy Choudhary assumed duties at the Raj Bhawan here, today, as the ADC to the Governor, Margaret Alva.
Major Choudhary replaced Major Siddharth, who has returned to his original cadre in the Indian Army after completing the duration of his appointment at the Raj Bhawan. Major Siddharth was appointed on 13 November, 2006 and his tenure has been the longest till date among the appointments to the post at the Raj Bhawan. The Governor praised Major Siddharth for his discipline and efficiency. She wished him a bright future in the Army and presented him a memento on the occasion.

Dehradun : History

History:It is said to be one of the oldest citites in India, it is believed that lord Rama and his brother did penance here for killing Ravana, the demon king. During the 17th and 18th centuries Dehradun changed hands several times: Guru Ram Rai retreated here from Punjab, the Mughal Governor Najib-ud- Daula occupied it from 1757-1770 and the Gorkhas overran it on their westward expansion before ceding it to the British in 1815. Under the British, Dehradun became an elite town with many a fine institution like Forest Research Institute, Doon and Welham Schools,.

Dehradun Location

Location:Nestled in the mountain ranges of the Himalaya, Dehradun is the Capital of Uttaranchal. It is one of the most beautiful resort in the submountain tracks of India, known for its scenic surroundings. The name Dehradun is a collection of two word "dera" meaning Camp and " dun" meaning valley.

Seminar on Climate Change and Global Warming begins

Derhadun: Addressing a seminar on Climate Change and Global Warming here today, Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today emphasised on the need to protect the agricultural land. The seminar had been organised under the World Food Programme.
He added that it was the need of the hour to protect the agriculture land in order to deal with the possibility of food crisis in the future. He noted that Uttarakhand was witnessing and facing population explosion during past one decade. It had only 13 percent of its land as agriculture land which was sharply declining due to development activities. At present, the production of food grains and the consumption were more or less equal in the state. However, if the agriculture land declined due to conversion to non agricultural uses, the food crisis was bound to develop. It was therefore necessary to ensure that the agriculture land was reserved for agriculture use only. The Government was therefore mulling on setting up Special Agriculture Zones (SAZ) to protect the agriculture land.

CM bans BT Brinjal in U’khand

Dehradun: Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today declared that cultivation of BT Brinjal, a genetically modified cultivar of Brinjal would not be allowed in Uttarakhand. He also appealed to the Centre to not to allow cultivation of BT Brinjal in the country.
Nishank today noted that the issue of Genetically modified food crops had been contentious and the controversy had been going on this respect for more than a decade now. No concrete conclusion could be reached so far that genetically modified food crops were safe for human consumption. For this reason, majority of the nations had not permitted cultivation of GM food crops in own land. Serious concerns had been raised in the country in respect of the permission being mulled for cultivation of GM Food Crops in the country. Mutually contradictory reports were being received in respect of BT Cotton crops in the country and there had been complaints regarding some allergies having been caused even when it was not a food crop.
The CM also noted that so far not enough independent scientific studies had been conducted in the country that could conclude that consumption of BT Brinjal was safe. He also noted that more than 2,500 cultivars of Brinjal that were cultivated in India. In case, GM Brinjal was permitted, this bio-diversity could by lost. Supreme Court Observers too had appealed to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) not to accord sanction to GM food crops in a hurry. There were safer and better ways to deal with the diseases and pests that usually affected the brinjal crops in the country and hence BT Brinjal was not necessary.

Sex racket busted, 6 arrested

Dehradun: Police today arrested 4 boys and 2 girls for conducting sex racket in a house and also seized some vehicles owned by them.
Upon receiving information from an informer, police raided a house in Kewal Vihar, Raipur on Friday afternoon. Police found 2 boys and 2 girls in objectionable conditions inside that house. Upon interrogation, they revealed their names as Kumari Pooja r/o Gaaziabad, Kumari Meen r/o NewDelhi, Robert John and Ajay Kumar r/o Raipur, Dehradun.
Police also arrested the house owner Churan Singh and the alleged pimp Mukesh Kumar and procured some stolen cars and motorcycles from them. The operation was conducted under the supervision of S.S.P Sweety Agarwal. As per the police, Robert had been to the Jail also in the past for the flesh racket.

City Youth Cong warns Shiv Sena of ‘consequences’

Dehradun: The City President of the City Youth Congress, Tinkle Arora, has expressed dismay that certain ‘anti-national’ elements were attacking the efforts of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to ‘ease the sufferings of the people’.
In a press statement issued, today, Arora has questioned the motives of Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray for having ordered display of black flags against the ‘Yuvraj’.
He described Thackeray as a ‘paper tiger’ that could only growl and do nothing else. He has warned Thackeray that the ‘entire force’ of the City Youth Congress woud be pitted against the Shiv Sena if anything was done against the dignity of the ‘crown prince’. The Youth Congress, he claimed, was capable of taking action should anything be done by the Shiv Sena against Rahul Gandhi.
Arora has demanded that Thackeray apologise to Rahul Gandhi for his lese majeste. Gandhi’s tour of Mumbai was proof that he did not care for the ‘empty threats’ made by the cowardly.
The City Youth Congress Vice President, Ajay Gupta has also stated that the Shiv Sena would be held responsible for its actions in an effective manner.
General Secretary Manish Verma has asked Thackeray to realise the folly of his words. He warned that the Shiv Sena would have to face the consequences if any untoward incident were to take place.

FGD lends support to Nagar Nigam's Anti encroachment drive

Dehradun: A delegation of ‘Citizens For Green Doon’ today met the Mayor, Vinod Chamoli, and expressed its support of the anti-encroachment drive undertaken recently by the Nagar Nigam. It may be recalled that a few days ago the DMC had removed encroachments from Brahmanwala area on Shasthradara Road and the Mayor had come under tremendous political pressure to call off the drive.
Dr Nitin Pandey of the CFGD said that if Dehradun was to become a modern city the Nagar Nigam must be strengthened and the property of Nigam was public land and belonged to the people of the State and no one should be allowed to encroach on it. He further said that the administration now ought to deal with encroachments in the city with the same vigour and there should be no discrimination between the encroachments by the rich and poor.
Chamoli welcomed the declaration of support and said that the educated people of the city had to come forward and support his mission to make Doon a clean, green and modern city. He assured the delegation that encroachments would soon be removed from the city as well. It was sad, he further said, that while he could understand the encroachments by the poor people, the encroachment by of rich traders defied any logic. He said that he would improve the condition of Dehradun, even if his actions cause him political loss. Mr. Chamoli said that multiplicity of implementing agencies, lack of proper coordination, corruption, unsympathetic officialdom and dilly dallying by the State Government in declaring a permanent capital of Uttarakhand played an important part in creating the mess in Dehradun.
The delegation requested the Mayor to give them a list of unused and idle land of Nagam and permission for planting trees and making gardens in such areas and in the khalas, which would not only prevent encroachment but also beautify the area and improve the environment of the city.
Florence Pandhi, of Friends of Doon, said that the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Dr. RBS Rawat, was making a plan for Greening Dehradun and the Nigam ought to give all possible support to it. Dr Kuldeep Dutta stressed that as per repeated Supreme Court rulings, the Nigam ought to give 15 days notice to all encroachers and then evict the encroachment forcefully.
Also present were Ruchi Singh Rao, Himanshu Arora, Sunil Datta & Anish Lal.

112 cases of corruption under BJP government: Harak Singh

Kashipur: Leader of the Opposition, Harak Singh Rawat arrived at Kashpur today on a three-day tour and was received by an overwhelming welcome by his supporters. There was a procession organised by NSUI which led the Congress leader to the Nagar Palika auditorium here.
In his address, Rawat asserted that Congress would bring positive thoughts and ideas among the people of the state. He further said that the image of Congress was positive among the people that was proven in the election results where the party had won 5 seats in the Lok Sabha. The welcome ceremony was attended by Nanital MLA KC Singh Baba, Harendra Singh Ladi, Manoj Joshi, NSUI district president Lavish Arora, Mukta Singh, city president Kamal Saxena and others.
Rawat later arrived at the residence of Manoj Joshi in Kundeshwari to meet Congress party members and supporters there. A press conference was organized here, during which the leader of opposition strongly criticized theNishank-led BJP government.
He said that there had been no development work during the three years since BJP’s tenure began, adding that Congress continued to fight the government for the people of the state. He also held the government responsible for the escalating prices. Rawat further said that BJP had accussed Congress of 56 cases of corruption and had used the red-light issue to fight in the elections when the government has been accused of 112 cases till date and has been distributing red-light status to its supporters.
Rawat also criticized the government for its inability to control crime and said that there has not been a single official order passed by the government for resolving any issue in capital Dehradun. He accused BJP of putting CM NIshank’s photograph on welfare policies being run by the central government to get appreciation from people.
On the issue of Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Rawat said that he had spoken with Tiwari and the latter had talked of moving beyond active politics and working for the betterment of the state by means of an organization. Rawat said that the decision of Tiwari was based on the fact that he had held a constitutional position and therefore did not want to get back to regional politics. The leader of opposition also held BJP responsible for the industrial (UDYOGIC) package not increasing.
On being questioned about his friendship with NIshank, Rawat said that he was friends with the CM and also claimed to have brought Nishank into politics. However, Rawat added that personal relations had to be kept on the side when it came to representing the public and it was his duty to bring forth the mistakes of the present government.
An interesting observation during the day was that several local leaders from other political parties visited Manoj Joshi’s residence to meet Harak Singh Rawat.

Three injured in tiger attack

Ramnagar: Three persons were injured by a tiger in Dhikuli village at roadside near Corbett National Park, here, today. Injured were admitted to the city government hospital for treatment. Serious injured person referred to Sushila Tiwari Hospital, Haldwani.
Taradutt Joshi, Nusrat Hussain and Akhtar Hussain, all residents of Dhikuli village were on morning walk at roadside near Corbett National Park in the morning of Friday. Suddenly, a tiger attacked Taradutt Joshi and injured him seriously. Nusrat Hussain and Akhtar Hussain also injured, when they tried to save Taradutt Joshi. The Tiger ran into the jungle, when people shouted for help. Taradutt Joshi referred to Sushila Tiwari Hospital Haldwani due to head injury. Injured Nusrat Hussain and Akhtar Hussain were admitted at it city government hospital for treatment.
MLA Deewan Singh Bisht and BJP leader Shamim Durrani also reached the hospital and asked the doctors about their treatment.

BJP criticise attacks on Indians in Australia

Ramnagar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticises attacks on Indians in Australia, here, today. They demand that Union Government ought to interfere in this matter and take action against Australia government on this issue. City BJP president Manish Agrawal held a meeting of party workers, here, today on the issue of attacks on Indians in Australia. They criticised the Australian Government for this. They demand interference of Indian government on this issue. They said that Australian government is exploiting Indians. They warned that the entry of Australians would be restricted if these attacks did not stop soon.