Highways to be closed for Kanwar

In view of ‘Kavad Yatra’ Dehradun Highway will remain closed from July 29 to August 8. Mobile police vans along with additional police forces, including Rapid Action Force, STF and PAC, will be deployed along the route during the yatra. CCTV cameras will also be installed along vital sensitive places. Metal detetors will be placed at entry points, while mobile vans with policemen in plain clothes guard the route. A meeting in this regard was held by district authorities of UP and Uttarakhand. District officials of Haridwar, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Baghpat were present in the meeting. Kanwads are Lord Shiva devotees, who arrive in Haridwar every year from different places to take a dip in holy.

Ban lifted

Thousands of fish died due to discharge of poisonous water from industries at Shukartal in Muzaffarnagar district following which an inquiry has been ordered into the incident, officials said. Fish were found dead on Monday following which a case has been registered against factories in Uttarakhand for discharging poisonous water in the Ganga, District magistrate Santosh Kumar told reporters in Muzaffarnagar. An inquiry has also been ordered into the incident, he said, adding Sub-Divisional Magistrate A.H. Karni would conduct the probe.

Opium seized

In one of the biggest haul, Uttarakhand police has claimed to have seized 96.3 kg of opium derivatives, worth over Rs 90 crore in international market, and arrested four suspected drug peddlers in Bajpur area of Udhamsingh Nagar district. Two country-made pistols of 0.315 bore were also recovered from the arrested persons, Inspector General of Police (Kumaon range) R.S. Meena told. On the basis of the information given by one Yogesh, who was caught with 300 gms of opium, the police laid a trap and arrested Mahipal with one kg of psychotropic substance.

Guv visits jail

State's governor Maragret Alva on Tuesday visited Dehra Dun Jail where former prime minister late Jawaharlal Nehru was incarcerated during the freedom movement. Alva, after seeing the ward where Nehru stayed, called for its renovation to enable it to become a tourist spot, an official release said. Nehru was jailed here during 1931-34 and was understood to have penned a few chapters of his famous book "Discovery of India".