@timesgroup.com gaurav.talwar what is ‘operation …

THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI / AGRATHURSDAY, JULY 22, 20212 TIMES REGION | UTTARAKHAND

Dehradun: Days after a vid-eo of tourists smoking hook-ah on the ghats of Ganga inHaridwar went viral on so-cial media, Uttarakhand po-lice has arrested 100 peoplefor allegedly drinking andusing contraband in reli-gious places and touristspots. As many as 631 peoplewere also challaned forsmoking in public spacesand littering.

The arrests came afterpolice launched ‘OperationMaryada’ on July 15 to crackdown on errant tourists andresidents. Banners were putup in Haridwar, warningstrict action against those in-volved in hooliganism in re-ligious places.

Ashok Kumar, directorgeneral of police (Uttarak-hand) told TOI that the oper-ation was launched after“videos disturbing the sanc-

tity of religious places” sur-faced on social media. “Wewelcome tourists in the statebut indecent activities at re-ligious places and littering attourist spots will not be toler-ated. We have arrested bothtourists and locals for flout-ing rules,” he said.

The maximum numberof people were arrested inDehradun (38) followed byChampawat (26) and Hari-

dwar (21). On July 20 alone, 10people were arrested for hoo-liganism at Har Ki Pauri inHaridwar, while action wastaken against 14 people forlittering on ghats of Ganga.

Those held are beingbooked under various Acts –such as the Excise Act andthe Gambling Act – and un-der provisions of the IndianPenal Code. Nine peoplewere also booked under Nar-

cotic Drugs and Psychotrop-ic Substances Act.

Those smoking in publicspaces were challaned underthe Cigarettes and Other To-bacco Products (Prohibitionof Advertisement and Regu-lation of Trade and Com-merce, Production, Supplyand Distribution) Act. Thosechallaned under Uttarak-hand Anti-littering and An-ti-spitting Act had to payfines up to Rs 500.

Police said that Rs 12 lakhhas been collected in finessince the launch of the oper-ation. The campaign has metwith support from local resi-dents who said “religious lo-cations should not be con-verted into places of recre-ation.”

Dehradun resident VikasSharma said, “We must pro-mote responsible tourism.CCTV cameras should alsobe installed in such places toact as a deterrent for thosewho create nuisance."

631 Challaned For Smoking, Littering Under Op ‘Maryada’

100 held for drinking, druguse in holy, tourist spots

Gaurav.Talwar@timesgroup.com

Dehradun: For the past 18months, the BJP governmentand the priests of Char Dhamhave locked horns over theChar Dham DevasthanamManagement Board Act.

Following repeated pro-tests by the priest community,chief minister PushkarSingh Dhami in a major state-ment on Wednesday an-nounced the decision to forma high-power committee to re-view “the situation rising af-ter the formation of theBoard and its legal aspects.”The CM said, “We are in fa-vour of positive amendmentsand a decision will be takenon the recommendation ofthe high-power committee.”The priests and the locals ofChar Dham shrines havebeen opposing the Act sinceits inception because theyfeel it challenges the centu-ries-old administrative andpower structure of theshrines. Amid strong opposi-tion from the Congress, theTrivendra Singh Rawat gov-

ernment had tabled the Billand passed it in the state as-sembly in December 2019.

The Board came into exist-ence after the official gazettenotification on June 15, 2020.Now with the high power-power committee, CM Dhamiwants to reach a consensusbetween the local stakehold-ers and the government.

Elaborating further onthe decision to form a high-power committee, the CMsaid, “According to the normsof the Act, the rights of thepriests, locals and otherstakeholders were kept safeand not infringed upon. How-ever, they thought that thegovernment wanted to takeover the reins of the yatra. Itis not so. The aim of the gov-ernment is to facilitate the ya-tra by providing clear water,proper electricity, nice ac-commodation, infrastruc-ture, cleanliness and roads.”

He highlighted that the ya-tra was crucial for the finan-cial health of the state and ithas a direct impact on the peo-ple associated with it.

CM: Committee willdecide future of

Devasthanam BoardKautilya.Singh@timesgroup.com

We had all this informationthat we could put to gooduse. So we decided to

launch a ‘Padho Doon Badho Doon’initiative to encourage people toread and write,” said Nitika Khan-delwal, chief development officerof Dehradun, who spearheadedthe campaign. The effort hadborne fruit. A year on, all of themcan read and write.

But when the authorities con-tacted the prospective “students”,they found that most of them wereshy about learning alongside chil-dren in schools. “We hit a road-block, but then we decided that ifpeople weren’t coming to school,we’ll take the school to them,” said

Khandelwal. So primary school teachers

were roped in to take special class-es in common spaces in all grampanchayats, sometimes even atpeople's homes, and develop a new

syllabus that would cater to the pu-pils. Puneet Sharma, a teacherwho participated in the project,told TOI that the main struggle wasnot to help people learn but to con-vince them it was necessary to do

so. “In the batch of 22 people that Itaught, 13 were aged above 50. Atfirst, many of them said they didn’tneed to be literate, but when we ex-plained to them the benefits of ba-sic education, they came around.In fact, many were quite excitedwhen we told them they would beable to use a smartphone once theycould read,” said Sharma, addingthat he had full attendance even inclasses that ran late into the eve-ning. To bypass boredom, lots of ac-tivity-based learning was intro-duced. “We used everyday objectsto teach. For instance, people weretaught to read and write the namesof spices they use daily in thekitchen and those of the dishesthey cook,” said Bhaskar Rawat,district resource person who was

part of the team that prepared thesyllabus. By January this year, all30,000 students were able to readand write to some degree. An inde-pendent survey conducted by NGORoom to Read and DIET (DistrictInstitute of Education and Train-ing), an autonomous body underthe state government, confirmedthat all students were literate.“They can write their own namesand rattle off numbers,” saidKhandelwal.

Some hard-working students,like 53-year-old Balo Devi, can evenread entire stories to her grand-children. She can also use a smart-phone to call her son, a soldier inthe Army, as well as calculate theamount when buying groceriesfrom the local ration shop.

Teachers went home, took evening classes

Road Surcharge of ̀̀ 2Road Surcharge of Rs. 2 is appli-cable on this edition for all thelocations except Dehradun,Doiwala, Jolly Grant, Mussoorie,Rishikesh, Haridwar, Roorkee,Saharanpur, Nainital, Haldwani,Rudrapur, Meerut, Modinagar,Mohiuddinpur, MuradnagarBareilly, Moradabad, Agra &Aligarh cities. This surcharge willbe in addition to the regularcover price printed on the mast-head.

Dehradun: In the thirdsuch death recorded in Utta-rakhand this week, a 10-year-old boy in Pithoragarh dis-trict was killed by a leopardwhile he was returning froma shop with his sister. Theanimal dragged the child to-wards the forest while his 13-year-old sister managed torun some distance and shoutfor help, alerting village res-idents.

By the time the residentsreached the spot, the big catwas nowhere to be seen. Theboy’s partially eaten bodywas recovered from the for-est in Pali village in Gangoli-haat on Tuesday.

This is the third such at-tack in the state this week.Earlier, two women werekilled within days of eachother in Tehri district.Three shooters who had putdown the maneater in Tehrion Tuesday are now beingdeployed to Pithoragarh tosearch for the leopard re-sponsible for the attack.

On Wednesday, villageresidents protested againstlack of swift action by theforest department.

“We’ll try to trap the ani-mal, if we are unable to do so,it will be shot dead,” said J S

Suhag, chief wildlife war-den of Uttarakhand forestdepartment. Camera trapshave been installed in the ar-ea to monitor the movementof the animal.

Vinay Bhargav, division-al forest officer of Pithora-garh, said this was the fifthdeath in leopard attack inPithoragarh forest divisionthis year. “Two maneatershave been put down. Thiswould be the third,” he toldTOI. Bhargav said initial ex-gratia had been provided tothe victim’s family and theremaining amount would bereleased after autopsy.

The forest division has ahigh rate of man-leopardconflict as a majority of its1,342 villages are in the vi-cinity of dense forests. “Lastyear, we lost 10 lives to leop-ard attacks. There is a needto survey abandoned villag-es in the region which havebecome safe haven for leop-ards,” said Bhargav.

Despite measures totackle man-leopard conflictin Uttarakhand hills, suchas increased patrolling anduse of radio collars to trackthe animals, big cat attacksaccount for more than half ofthe deaths in man-wildlifeconflict incidents in thestate.

Leopard kills boy,sister escapes; 3rdsuch death this wkShivani.Azad@timesgroup.com

Dehradun: About a centuryago, a group of local tradersin Nainital decided they hadto do something to draw peo-ple and business to the quiethill town. An annual hockeytournament, they finally de-cided, would be their legacy.And that’s how the All IndiaTrades Cup Hockey Cham-pionship, one of India’s ol-dest hockey tournaments,was flagged off. For decades,it was known for nurturingOlympians and medallists.But time changed every-thing. Funds dried up and asplayers started favouring as-troturf, the gravel-lined fieldof Nainital lies abandoned.

For two years now, thetournament has not beenheld — the first such breakin its history. And organis-ers don’t know if it will beagain. “The tournament is

unique. Games are played on0.2-0.5-mm cover of gravel,”said Anil Garia, general sec-retary of the NainitalGymkhana and DistrictSports Association (DSA),which has taken over the re-sponsibility of holding thetournament. The Gymkha-na is an autonomous bodyestablished in the 1880swhich merged with the DSAin the 1930s. “But it’s diffi-

cult to maintain the stan-dards of the tournamentnow. Funding is way too low.Punjab-based tournamentsoffer cash prizes of Rs 1crore. Despite our history,we are finding it difficult tocarry on.” The tournamenthas been the breedingground of many greats —Pargat Singh, who led the In-dian hockey team in the 1992Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta

Olympics, Zafar Iqbal, whowas captain of the team inthe 1984 Los Angeles Olym-pics, Syed Ali, who partici-pated in the controversial1976 Olympics at Montreal,and Mervyn Fernandes,part of the gold-winningteam at the 1980 MoscowOlympics.

“Several Olympians, es-pecially from Punjab, wouldcome here till the late ‘80s.Top departments like Air In-dia, Bharat Petroleum Lim-ited, Punjab Police used tosend their best players evenuntil the ‘90s. SBI Lucknowwon the highest number oftimes,” said Rajendra SinghRawat, goalkeeper of the In-dian hockey squad at the1988 Seoul Olympics. “In theearly 2000s, a team from Pa-kistan participated, as didan England-based under-19team. Now, everybody pre-fers astroturf. Top teamsdon’t come.”

Annual hockey tournament, known fornurturing Olympians, fighting off closure

Dehradun: With CharDham yatra yet to start forpilgrims this year, chief min-ister Pushkar Singh Dhamion Wednesday announced aRs 200 crore package for 1.64lakh people associated withthe annual pilgrimage andother sectors. Due to the clo-sure of the yatra for devo-tees, hotel and transportbusiness, porters and otheractivities are almost at astandstill.

“The state governmentwill directly transfer moneyto the bank account of thepersons working /doingbusiness in such sectors.Apart from this, exemptionwill be given on license feefor various business activ-ities,” CM Dhami said, add-

ing, “This package will helpthe people working in thetourism sector and boost thestate's economy.”

People engaged in vari-ous activities of tourismbusiness and registered withthe departments would beprovided financial assist-ance of Rs 2,000 per monthfor six months. The move willbenefit as many as 5,000 peo-ple. Under the UttarakhandTourism Travel BusinessManuals, financial assist-ance of Rs 10,000 would beprovided to the 655 regis-tered tour and adventuretour operators. River guides,630 of them, will get Rs 10,000.And 93 boat operators regis-tered under Tehri Lake willget Rs 10,000 Exemption fromregistration and license re-newal fee would be providedin the tourism department.

Tourism sector toget `̀200 crore

Uttarkashi: Chief ministerPushkar Singh Dhami had toface the anger of locals duringhis visit to the cloudburst-af-fected Mando and Kankradivillages of Uttarkashi districton Wednesday.

The agitated locals raisedanti-government slogans andaccused the chief minister ofonly interacting with the localBJP workers while snubbingthe villagers during his visit.

However, the CM, whilespeaking to media persons,denied all such allegationsand said that he met the affect-ed families. “The governmentstands firm with disaster-af-fected families. We will takeall necessary steps to resolvetheir issues,” said the CM.

During his visit, chiefminister Dhami announcedRs 1 lakh for the families of thecloudburst victims. Besides,he ordered the construction offlood protection walls on bothsides of the mountain stream.

The CM also directed offi-cials to conduct a geologicalsurvey of the area and startthe rehabilitation process ofthe affected families at the ear-liest possible.

CM: Rs 1Lex-gratia forvictim’s kin

Dehradun: Several members of the Uttarakhand Beroj-gar Sangh met officials of the chief minister’s office onWednesday and sought relaxation of at least two years inthe maximum age limit for recruitment to various stategovernment posts. This comes a few days after chief minis-ter Pushkar Singh Dhami announced a one-year age relax-ation for recruitment in state government jobs due to theCovid-19 pandemic that delayed several examinations.

Bobby Panwar, UBS president, told TOI, “The secondwave of the pandemic led to further delays in recruitmentexaminations. ” Shivani Azad

Association demands age limitrelaxation for govt jobs

43824

Number of positive cases

37Number of

deaths

0Number of

samples tested

18,090Number of people

vaccinated

42,022

UTTARAKHAND CORONA METERJULY 21, 2021

Kautilya.Singh@timesgroup.com

Primary school teachers were roped in to take special classes in gram panchayats

WHAT IS ‘OPERATION MARYADA’?➤ Days after a video of tourists smoking hookah on the ghatsof Ganga in Haridwar went viral on social media, Uttarakhandpolice has arrested 100 people for allegedly drinking and usingcontraband in religious places and tourist spots

➤ The arrests came after police launched ‘Operation Marya-da’ on July 15 to crack down on errant tourists and residents

➤ We welcome tourists in the state but indecent activities atreligious places and littering at tourist spots will not be toler-ated, said DGP Uttarakhand Ashok Kumar

➤ At 38, the maximum number of arrests were made in Doon

➤ `̀12 lakh has been collected in fines since the launch of theoperation

For two years now, the tournament has not been held — the firstsuch break in its history

File photo Mohammad.Anab@timesgroup.com

Dehradun: Approximately35-40 personnel of the Peo-ple’s Liberation Army(PLA) of China recently visited the LAC oppositeBarahoti area in Uttarak-hand’s Chamoli district,sources said. However, theycouldn’t confirm if they in-truded on the Indian side.

“This is the latest case ofChinese activity near Bara-hoti. They came in horsesfour to five days ago and leftsome belongings as evi-dence of their visit,” a senior government officialtold TOI on Wednesday.“They usually visit afterthe monsoon. They cameearly this time,” he said.

Another government of-ficial, who also did not wishto be named, said that theactivity of the Chinese ar-my had increased along the

Line of Actual Control(LAC) near Barahoti. In2018, the Indian Army andIndo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) reported to the Cen-tre multiple aerial intru-sions in the Barahoti plainsby the PLA.

On the Indian side, amulti-departmental teamalso goes on routine reccesnear the area (usually threetimes a year) to keep an eyeon it. “A team from the dis-trict administration visitedBarahoti a fortnight ago,”said a senior district policeofficial.

Barahoti, located alongUttarakhand’s border withChina, is merely 397 kmfrom state capital Dehradun.

The scenic grassland inChamoli district is connect-ed by roads to Joshimath. A3-km steep trek leads to theBarahoti ridge, from whereTibet is visible.

Chinese soldiersspotted along LAC

Gaurav.Talwar@timesgroup.com

Dehradun: With the Utta-rakhand government allow-ing the reopening of placeslike cinema halls, swimmingpools, and others for the pub-lic with a 50% capacity, thestate teachers’ associationhas asked the education de-partment officials to consid-er reopening schools, at leastfor Class VI and above.

Uttarakhand educationminister Arvind Pandey hassaid that he will take up theissue with the chief minister.

Schools to openfor Class VI &

above in state?TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Abhyudaya Kotnala TNN

CM Dhami in Uttarkashi

DOON WEATHER

Partly cloudysky

Maximum32° (+2)..............................Minimum24° (+1)

�Continued from P1

Dehradun: New Covid-19cases continue to be low inUttarakhand, as the stateregistered 37 Covid-19 caseson Wednesday and zerodeaths. The number of ac-tive cases now stands at 643in the state. The tally has re-ached 3,41,573 and the toll7,357. A total of 14 Covid-19patients were cured onWednesday. The recoverypercentage now stands at95.9% in the hill state. How-ever, the number of samplessent for testing was againless than 20,000, as 18,090samples were sent onWednesday.

37 fresh Covid-19cases, no deaths

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

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