Work of over 300 artists on display

Dehradun, April 8
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva visited the Mask’s Exhibition organised by Rural Entrepreneurship for Art and Cultural Heritage (REACH) here yesterday. The exhibition features the work of more than 300 works by eminent artists from across the country and abroad. The exhibition has attracted people of the city and has to be extended on demand.

The concept behind the exhibition is to incite the artists to bring out inner feelings and aspirations in opposition to the concept of masks that hide the human expressions and emotions. The exhibition has brought out this idea beautifully in the form of paintings, graphic arts, photography and sculpture.

The Governor, on witnessing the magnificent display of masks, remarked, "Each mask tells its own story and this is a mind-boggling display of artistry. Every art lover must visit the gallery."

This exhibition has been successfully organised at Lalit Kala Akademi Gallery in Delhi and the Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal.

The exhibition will now be held in Italy, Singapore and Pakistan.

Illegal sale, purchase of religious properties continue unabated in Haridwar

Builders, priests, officials allegedly involved in shady deals

Haridwar, April 8
The land selling issue of ancient Kushavrat ghat and the Ahilya Bai Devi Holkar dharamshala in Haridwar has now opened the Pandora's Box. More such hidden property deals that are affecting the ancient mythological aspect of the pilgrim city may surface.
Buying and selling of religious properties have become almost a routine affair with even government employees coming onto the radar, who give official look to the fake change of name of religious properties, making huge share of profits from such deals.
Though selling of religious properties such as dharmashalas and those of public usage were prohibited by the previous BJP led state government, yet selling of Kushavrat ghat which holds immense religious significance to commercial buyers has highlighted the need of having special monitoring of such religious properties. Though Ahillya Bai Devi Holkar Trust, which looks after the dharamshala and other properties, is now making an excuse that they don’t have any role in selling of the dharamshala or ghat, another aspect came to light that on August 2, 2009, when trust member Raghavendra Shikola had given on lease of amount of Rs 2000 annually Kushawrat ghat and adjacent small rooms to Arvind Kumar, who was trying to buy the whole Kushavrat ghat and Ahilya Bai Dharamshala.
Now Arvind is saying that only dharmashala’s selling deal was being done and not of Kushavrat ghat as is being made out by some organisations.He said that he along with the seller Raghavendra Shikola submitted all the deal and property-related papers to the District Magistrate.
Akhil Bharatiya Holkar Maha Sangh, in view of the secret deal of selling Kushavrat ghat and adjacent Ahilya Bai Hokar Devi Dharamshala, which is related to the royal Holkar Indore dynasty, has demanded seizing of the whole property and has also written to several parliamentarians related with the community as well of Uttarakhand to raise this issue in Parliament, as it has deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the people.
Even the rooms of dharmshalas were broken to give them a facelift of shops in the 80s, though later the then Joint Magistrate Ghansyam Pant had in his verdict termed the construction as illegal, citing the narrow lanes of the dharamshala. When Haridwar Development Authority officials were contacted, they couldn’t give satisfactory reasons as to how the shops were made, particulary in the western and northern parts of the dharamshala premises, where rates run now in crores.
Talking to TNS, HDA vice chairperson said that this aspect is also being looked into. He pointed that during Maha Kumbh 2010 he had given orders to stop the digging work being taken in and around the Kushavrat ghat owing to religious significance of this ghat.
Demand of acquisition of all dharamshalas is also now being made from state government by various organisations. Ramesh Chandra Sharma, secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Dharamshala Prabandhak Sabha, has written a letter to Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna in this regard, demanding that all the deals of dharmashalas made out since creation of the state should be cancelled with immediate effect as mass scale corruption has taken place with a nexus between some so-called religious people, commercial builders and government officers.
District Magistrate D Senthyl Pendiyan informed that as the current selling deal has been made on basis of a supplementary deed which has only Madhya Pradesh government representatives, while in the original deed the Government of India was also taken as representative of the trust in 1962. The administration has written to both Central Government and the Government of Madhya Pradesh to provide full details, records and papers regarding this deed.
Meanwhile, normal ‘karm kand’ and ‘sanskar’ and other rituals are still going on at the Kushavrat ghat while in view of the ongoing tension, additional police personnel have been deployed at the ghat area.
“Property papers, old maps,documents are being assessed. Also, the total property of trust and benaami records are being inter checked by the investigating team,” said SDM Harbeer Singh of administrative team looking into this matter.

People throng trade Uttaranchal Trade Fair

Dehradun, April 8
Uttaranchal Trade Fair, which is being organised by Real Host in collaboration with Event Paradise at Parade Ground, has been dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar this year for successfully completing the "grand century." A wide screen has been installed at the venue itself for the people to enjoy live IPL coverage while shopping. The organisers are claiming a display of more than 400 products and hundreds of books in the fair. The cultural programme will be held side by side. To keep children engaged, fascinating swings and delicacies of various states have also been arranged.

Telling more about the fair, MD of Real Host Sanjay Singh said Uttarakhand Khadi & Gramudyog Board and State AIDS Control Society had also put up their stalls in the fair.

He said the such an event gave an excellent opportunity to the local traders to display their products to a wide-ranging group of clients and earn profits.

The cloth material, shoes, bags, saris, kurties, namkeen material, kitchen products, glass items and decorative items were among other things which had the crowd drooling over them. The fair will continue till April 16.

Meanwhile, another fair of similar kind, National Handloom Expo, held at Parade Ground will culminate on Monday. It was the cultural artistes from Jaunsar Bawar who presented their traditional dance forms. People reached in large numbers to benefit from the heavy discount given on the products on the last day.

Gursikh Education Society celebrations dedicated to Inderjeet Singh

Dehradun, April 8

The second two-day annual function of Gursikh Education Society (GES) was celebrated at Race Course in the city today. The GES also released a souvenir on the occasion. The celebrations were marked and dedicated to the birth centenary of legendary Dr Inderjeet Singh, who was ex-chairman of Punjab and Sind Bank.

On the occasion Sewa Award 2011 was conferred upon S. Gurdeep Singh Sahota, an activist dedicated to the cause of minorities and an esteemed member of Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for Minorities.

This award was conferred on Sahota for his outstanding contribution in safeguarding and promoting the constitutional and legal rights of minorities in the region.

A senior member said Dr Inderjeet Singh gave employment to 18,000 youngsters and made plenty of others self-reliant by giving them loans on easy instalments. He remained engaged in social service throughout his life and later set up a new bank, Bank of Punjab.

Davinder Singh Bindra, president of GES, said the society was also paying for the education of 150 poor children. With the inspiration of Dr Inderjeet Singh, he said their organisation would remain committed to the welfare of people of the downtrodden section.

President of Gursikh Education Society Devinder Singh Bindra read out the annual report of the society. Delegates from Delhi, Punjab & Uttarakhand lauded the contribution of Inderjeet Singh towards banking, education and employment.

Besides, Makhan Singh, former Deputy General Manager, Punjab & Sind Bank, Rajinder Singh Rajan, Harbhajan Singh Anand, Phoola Singh, Raju Bindra, Balbir Singh Sahni, Inderjeet Singh, Manpreet Singh and Jasbir Kaur were among the dignitaries who were present on the occasion.

Welham girls beat DAV School

Dehradun, April 8
The District Junior (Under-18) Basketball Championship for boys and girls being organised by the District Basketball Association started here today. On the opening day, matches in the girls section were held at Doon International School today.

In the first match, Welham Girls School defeated DAV Public School 30-02. Doon Interntaional School beat Convent of Jesus and Mary School 26-21. Welham Girls School beat St. Thomas College 23-10. Carman School beat Moravian Institute 5-0. In the last match, Hopetown Girls School defeated St Mary School 33-6.

ICL-Chandigarh win cricket tournament

Dehradun, April 8
ICL-Chandigarh emerged victorious in the 4th Uttarakhand Cricket Tournament by defeating Dev Bhoomi Cricket Academy, Haldwani, by three wickets in the final match of the tournament played at Ranger's College ground here today.

Dev Bhoomi Cricket Academy team, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, scored 208 runs for eight wickets in their allotted 35 overs.

Rahat Ali scored 52 runs while Umang Sharma and Hyder scored 39 and 38 runs, respectively. Kuldeep Johty took two wickets for 33 runs for the Chandigarh team.

In reply, ICL-Chandigarh scored 210 runs for seven wickets to win the match by three wickets.

Prateek Panwar scored 47 runs while Gaurav Gambhir and Mandeep chipped in with 44 and 41 runs, respectively.

Gaurav Gambhir was declared as the man of the match for his overall performance.

D.S.Mann, Principal, Doon International School, gave away the prizes to the winners and runners-up teams.

Traffic police all set for Char Dham yatra

Haridwar April 8
With the tourist season reaching its peak in Haridwar, the traffic police has also started gearing itself to make smooth traffic movement on the National Highways 58 and 72. As from April 24, the Char Dham yatra also gets underway and the traffic pressure increases substantially, the traffic police is chalking out methods to ensure free flow of traffic.

In this regard, Traffic Superintendent Dr Kiran Lal Shaw has given specific directions to officials to provide a detailed report on the main points and intersections where traffic congestion takes place.

Also the sub-entry points to the Har-ki-Pauri region are being identified and made one way only as it has come to light that a major traffic problem occurs due to most of vehicle owners trying to use such sub-routes from both directions paving way for jams.

Traffic Inspector Devendra Dabral informed TNS that diversion paints and reflective rods were being placed at heavily traffic-congested stretch from Shankaracharya Chowk to Chandi Ghat Deen Dayal Upadhyay multiparking lot so that vehicles didn't overtake each other.

While sub-routes leading towards Brahm Kund-Har-Ki-Pauri and adjacent ghats were also being monitored by traffic police personnel with their deployment being done at both sides to ensure one-way traffic.

Results of these steps were visible as today these streches were less congested and tourists didn't violate traffic rules easily as fine was also being levied on the offenders at the very spot.

"We also urge tourists and vehicle drivers to cooperate with us in ensuring smooth traffic flow.Till four-lane work gets completed, traffic congestion will be a major problem in Haridwar but despite staff crunch, we are working round the clock to ensure traffic jams don't take place once, the Char Dham pilgrimage commences" said Dabral.