DAV College website launched

Dehradun, March 30

The most awaited official website of DAV PG College, www.davpgcollege.com, was launched by the secretary of the college management committee, Jagendra Swaroop, here today.

A large number of students and staff were present at the event to unveil the networking domain of the institution.

Dr Devender Bhasin, Principal of the college, chaired the event in the presence of web team, including Dr Ravi Dixit, Dr Anup Kumar Mishra, Dr Hari Om Shanker, Dr Amit Sharma and other office bearers. The website has features like the online admission inquiry, admission form downloads, information on recent college activities and upcoming projects.

“An official website is a perfect forum to share information with the students,” said Bhasin.

Dr Dixit announced that the web team would organise several initiatives soon, including the participation of students as well as of the staff

Australian citizen makes people aware of autism

Mussoorie

Ian Lahiff, Australian citizen aged around 50, walked on The Mall Road on foot, carrying a placard tied on his chest in support of raising awareness towards a fast-growing disease called autism on the eve of World Autism Day here today. The campaign was carried out under the aegis of a social organiation Arunima situated near Kyarkuli.

According to head of the organisation Aparna Das, Ian Lahiff was working for her organisation to raise awareness on the disease that was spreading its tentacles in India and people had very less knowledge about how it affects the person.

Therefore, it was important to remove any stigmas attached to it and Ian Lahiff was assisting them in raising awareness about the disease today.

She further said that Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that manifests itself during the first three years of life. The rate of autism in all regions of the world is high and it has a tremendous impact on children, their families, communities and societies.

According to the UN health reports, one out of every 88 persons was being diagnosed as suffering from the disease. Therefore, it was imperative to raise awareness towards such fatal disease. She also said that her organisation was working in the town towards addressing the problems faced by such patients and at the moment five persons were being treated at the centre run by her In Kyarkuli, near Mussoorie.

FM radio Hello Doon launched

Dehradun, March 31
The much-awaited community FM radio, Hello Doon of the National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH), began broadcasting services here today. Hello Doon will cater to the needs of the visually challenged and the community living around the NIVH and will also provide job opportunities to the visually challenged.

"Though we conceptualised the project two years ago, it got delayed due to technical problems. The problems regarding the range of the community FM radio are still being looked into. We did not want to delay the launch further and disappoint the visually challenged persons, who had shown great deal of enthusiasm in running the community radio station," said Anuradha Dalmia, Director, NIVH.

The NIVH would also start a nine-month broadcasting course for the visually challenged persons from this session. "Ultimately, our goal is to empower visually challenged persons, who face hurdles every day due to lack of a conducive environment," said Dalmia.

While participating in the live broadcast, Dr S Farooq from Tasmia organisation said radio was proving to be a better medium for educating people. The NIVH had spent Rs 25 lakh on upgrading two studios. The community radio would focus on broadcasting programmes on education, family and health welfare, entertainment, employment etc.

Later, a large printing press was inaugurated at the Central Braille Press. This press would allow the printing of study material for persons with low vision.

NRI forms Patnipeedith Association

Dehradun, April 3
Vishwanath Iyer, a Non-Resident Indian, who now lives here, has formed the Patnipeedith Association to help those who have been harassed by their wives or laws which are pro-women and leave enough scope to be distorted and used against husbands.

He called a press meet today to inform the mediapersons that a plenary session would be convened on April 15 to hear the grievances of those who were having troubled relationship with their wives and want to seek legal help.

Ironically, Iyer's own life had been full of contradictions. He married four times, last time five years ago at the age of 59. He said he was implicated in a case of setting a woman on fire in Rishikesh and was also put in jail for seven months. He also had a live-in relationship with a woman Sharda, who lived in Rishikesh whom he had married third time in 2004 and then married for the fourth time in 2007 to another woman in Rishikesh.

He calls his fourth marriage, a "forced" one where the woman pressured him into marrying her. After he annulled this marriage, he began staying with Sharda.

Iyer said he worked in France as a translator and came back to India in 2001 after he felt emotionally broken after his second divorce and settled in Rishikesh. At present, he is living in Dehradun.

As a head of the organisation, he has taken along a panel of advocates Ravi Singh Negi, Sahshikant Shahi, Rakesh Kumar Verma and Ranjeet Kantura. 

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.