Dehradun railway station reopens after 40 days

Railway authorities have announced that the train services through Dehradun would be resumed after it was suspended for 40 days carrying out construction and maintenance work on one of the platforms. The traffic block started on April 17 and is now ready to be thrown open. The closure affected at least 16 trains that crossed Dehradun or originated here and were rerouted to Haridwar creating in this period.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 27 May 2017.

Indian Railways have informed that the work was necessary to improve facilities and cleanliness at the station and the objective was to provide a cleaner railway station to the travelers. The work on the tracks are over and only the finishing touches on the platform remain.
The shopkeepers at the station premises were happy because their business had suffered and earnings had dropped for the period of closure.


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Demand increases for Yoga teachers of Rishikesh in foreign countries

Rishikesh is the yoga capital of India and it is exporting yoga teachers to Southeast Asia as well as China where the demand for yoga is at an all-time high. Right now, these is nearly 1,500 Indian yoga teachers in China and 70 to 80% of them hail from Rishikesh and Haridwar which are home to a number of yoga schools where these teachers have perfected their skills.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 7 March 2017.

One of the teachers who has been teaching yoga in China for over a decade now and learnt his asanas at an ashram in Rishikesh received the title of 'The Most Beautiful Yogi of China' last year. He runs his own studio 'WeYoga' in Beijing and has revealed that in spite of there being others who teach yoga, Indian teachers are the most preferred.
According to a report from Beijing, yoga is growing rapidly and becoming popular in China with the number of people involved in practicing it rising from 4 million in 2009 to 10 million in 2014. In 2009, there wee about 1.1 lakh professional coaches — both local and from across the globe — and thst number had shot to 2.3 lakh by 2014.


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Baba Ramdev to launch jeans as a part of his apparel brand Paridhan

Baba Ramdev has made a name for himself in the fields of medicines, toiletries and food products in his huge setup in Haridwar and, now, wants to launch jeans and office wear as a part of his apparel brand Paridhan. He is his own brand ambassador for Patanjali products and has plans to go global with factories initially in Bangladesh and Africa and eventually spreading wings to Europe and the US.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 10 September 2016.

Baba Ramdev does not have any share in the business he runs and he has admitted that the idea (of the apparel brand) started with some followers asking him for Patanjali yoga wear. That led to the thinking of a whole range of dresses for everyone. In his opinion, if we want to bring economic independence for our country from multinationals by promoting indigenous and natural products, then we should also be in the garments market.
He has added that we will make men's and women's wear, not just traditional Indian clothing but also modern wear like jeans. Being a Baba does not mean that he cannot marry modernity with spirituality - hence, the concept of desi jeans.


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125 hotels in Haridwar identified for dirtying the Ganga - faces strict action including closure

The state Pollution Control Board (PCB) plans to initiate action against 125 hotels in the city of Haridwar for dumping their effluents into the Ganga. This is in clear violation of a National Green tribunal (NGT) order of August 19 which has made it mandatory for all hotels with 20 or more rooms to have their own sewage treatment plant (STP) or bio-digester so that untreated sewage from them does not go into the river.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 3 September 2016.

The PCB had asked the regional office at Roorkee to provide a list of hotels in Haridwar with 20 or more rooms. Accordingly, a list of 125 hotels in this category was submitted to the PCB and all these hotels are allegedly flouting the NGT order because their sewage goes directly into the Ganga.
A list of ashrams and dharmashalas in the category is also being prepared.
Till now, 12 hotels in Garhwal and 15 in Kumaon have been sealed for flouting the NGT order. In Haridwar, five hotels have already faced action from the PCB for flouting the order. These were issued closure orders. But they have gone to court and were allowed time till August 27 to set up their STPs, which they have complied with.


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Aloe Vera cultivation in Jaisalmer makes a man a crorepati

Just imagine becoming a crorepati by cultivating an ordinary plant called aloe vera. That has actually happened to a man with a farmer background who had a government job. He was not satisfied and wanted to do something different and a visit to an agri expo in Delhi was the turning point in his life. He quit his job and started cultivating aloe vera and other crops on his 120-acre farmland and today boats of an annual turnover of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2-crore.
One of his customers is Patanjali Food Products Limited who use it for making aloe vera juice.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 12 July 2016.

He has now started his own company at Dhaisar, 45-Km from Jaisalmer and the product grown in Thar Desert has found a ready customer in Patanjali Food Products Limited. He had started with around 80,000 saplings of aloe vera and it has now increased to seven lakh. In last four months, he has dispatched 125-150 tonnes of processed aloe vera pulp to Patanjali factories in Haridwar.
Incidentally, the quality of aloe vera grown in desert area is of a high quality and, hence, there is a heavy demand for it in national and international markets. He got an idea to grow aloe vera, amla and gunda after visiting an agro fair. Usually, in desert areas, bajra, wheat, moong, mustard etc are grown, but he went in for the 'babie densis' variety of aloe vera on his 120-acre field. This variety has a high demand in countries like Brazil, Hong Kong and America too.


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Namami Gange to take off from next month with surface cleaning of 10 cities

#Namamigange #umabharati #Haridwar #varanasi The Namami Gange is to take off in real earnest from next month with surface cleaning of 10 cities - the initial task would be to begin surface cleaning of the River Ganga by removal of solid waste like clothes and parts of dead bodies. AS indicated by water resources minister Uma Bharati, the cities identified are Haridwar, Garhmukteshwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Sahibganj, Kolkata, Nabadwip and Gangasagar.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 24 December 2015.

As revealed by the minister, trial of surface cleaning has already been taken up in Varanasi by Tata Projects Ltd under corporate social responsibility scheme. NTPC, ONGC and Petronet have also expressed willingness to fund the project.
Regarding progress of sewage treatment under Namami Gange, the minister has informed that 29 projects have been completed at a cost of Rs 463.58 crore with the treatment capacity of 123 million litres per day (MLD) and sewer network of 666.69 km. A total of 93 projects have been sanctioned at the cost of Rs 1,502.66 crore. Once complete, it will result in the creation of treatment capacity of 858 MLD and sewer network of 3,623.10 km.
On the subject of progress in river front/ghat development projects, it seems development of four ghats out of 20 in Patna was completed last month and work at Chandighat (Haridwar), Chhath Ghat (Delhi) and Sahibganj will start next month.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Madhuri Dixit in a spot of bother over her ad of Maggi 2-minute noodle

Madhuri Dixit is in a spot of bother about her endorsement of an ad of Maggi ‘the 2-minute noodle’ that has, till now, been a favorite of not only children of all ages but even for grown-ups. The Food and Drugs Administration of Haridwar has served the Bollywood actress with a notice demanding clarifications on claims made in the advertisement regarding Maggi noodles.
As reported in newsnation.in dated 29 May 2015, she has to respond to the notice within 15 days. In case she fails to do so, a case could be registered against her.

The clarifications have been sought on seven points.
These include how Maggi is good for health, and the basis of making the claims. She also has been asked to provide details of the contract.
It may be recalled that Maggi had come under regulatory scanner because samples collected in Uttar Pradesh and tested were found to have a substance called monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lead far in excess of the permissible limit.
Incidentally, zeenews.com dated 22 May 2015 has indicated that the samples collected in some parts of Uttar Pradesh had found that Maggi contains 17 parts per million lead, while the permissible limit is only 0.01 ppm.
(Image source wikimediacommons.com)

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Uma Bharti takes stock of Namaami Gange (Ganga Clean-up) on a motorcycle

#namaamigange #ganga #UmaBharti #Haridwar Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has taken a decision to stay of the banks of the Ganga for 3 to 4 days in a week in order to keep a tab on the drains that empty their wastes into the waters of the river.
She has, apparently, taken a tour of the city of Haridwar on a motorbike to acquaint herself with the existing sewage system.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 20 May 2015.

Obviously, she has formed certain ideas on how best to tackle this problem that is unique in the Indian context because the river is a holy river and everyone believes that its waters ae pure irrespective of its level of pollution.
The Modi government is celebrating its one-year in office and Namaami Gange (Ganga Clean-up mission) is close to his heart. He has assigned this task to Uma Bharti and she has admitted that the first year was devoted to making financial provisions and lengthy paperwork.
She is now entering the second part of the exercise – she will come out of her official chamber and spend at least 3-4 days a week on the banks of the Ganga. She wants to find out what actually flows into the river.
This work, in her estimate, will go on till October 2016. During this time, she would be checking the drains on the banks of the river to see what flows into the Ganga to make it dirty.
She has not yet decided on what her plans are beyond October 2016.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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