State mourning for killed school kids

Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Thursday declared three-day state mourning for the 19 school children who were buried alive following collapse of a classroom in the state's Bageshwar district. All government-run and aided schools in the entire state remained closed from Thusday to Saturday as a mark of respect to the children killed in the tragedy on Wednesday, following a cloudburst in Sumgarh village near Kapkot in the district.

Nishank flew down to the village where incessant rains had triggered landslides and caused extensive damage. According to a local source, the victims were students of class I, II and III of the Saraswati Shishu Mandir school. "One family lost its three children," the source said. According to a Bageshwar police official, "Since the school was located on a mountain slope, continued rain on account of cloudburst brought with it a huge amount of rocky slush that hit and crashed the wall of one of the classrooms."

"The classroom collapsed within a matter of seconds, burying all the 24 children present," the official said. While 18 of the children died on the spot, one succumbed to his injuries later in the local hospital. The other five children were saved.

9 IAS, 4 PCS officers transferred

In an administrative reshuffle, Uttarakhand government on Thursday transferred nine Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and four PCS officers. Principal secretary, home and Ayush, Rajiv Gupta has been entrusted with the post of Infrastructure Commissioner in addition to his present responsibilities.

S. Murugeshan, who was holding the post of chief development officer (CDO) of Tehri, has been made additional secretary, rural development, finance and chief coordinator of Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojna. He will take place of Amit Negi, who will now hold the post of additional secretary, Health and Family welfare.

Ranjit Kumar Sinha, CDO of Chamoli, has been transferred to Dehradun and will assume with the post of additional secretary sports, Planning, Culture and Training.

Indudhar Baurai has been relieved from the post of Mukhya Nagar Adhikari of Dehra Dun Municipal Corporation. However, he will continue to hold the post of CDO of Dehradun.

Uttarkashi joint magistrate R. Rajesh Kumar has been transferred to Pithoragarh as the CDO, while Naintal joint magistrate Deepak Rawat has been made the new CDO of Chamoli.

Ashish Kumar Joshi, who was entrusted with the responsibility of additional secretary, Sports and Employment, has been made the CDO of Tehri. Nitesh Kumar Jha has been relieved from the post of additional secretary, power. He would continue to hold other responsibilities like additional secretary of IT. Divisional Food Controller (Garhwal) V.P. Raturi has been transferred to Nainital as the CDO. ADM (Haridwar) S.N. Pande has been made Mukhya Nagar Adhikari of Dehradun municipal corporation.

Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority, secretary, Sushil Kumar will now hold the responsibility of divisional food controller of Garhwal.

Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, general manager, U.C. Kabarwal has also been given the additional responsibility of general manager of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation.