Dehradun:

A self-styled godman has allegedly built an unauthorised temple in the Suderdhunga river valley close to a sacred lake originating from a glacier in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district, angering locals who have accused him of desecrating the lake by bathing in it.

According to officials, Baba Chaitanya Akash alias Aditya Kailash managed to convince some locals to help him construct the temple in the eco-sensitive zone by telling them that he had received divine orders in a dream to build it.

The matter was referred to the police for an investigation after an application was received from the locals in this regard, Bageshwar District Magistrate Anuradha Pal told PTI on the phone on Tuesday.

The road to the spot where the temple has been built passes through difficult terrain and remains closed during monsoon, she said.

“The structure made of wood and stone is a small temple. It is illegal and built on no man’s land,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Akshay Prahlad Konde said.

It seems that some locals helped him build the structure after he told them that he had received divine orders to construct it in a dream. The self-styled godman has been living in the temple for the last 10-12 days and bathing in the sacred lake, Devi Kund, the SP said.

This has caused resentment among the residents of the nearby villages who feel it is an act of desecration.

“The locals revere the lake and bathe their deities in it once in a year,” Konde said.

While the self-styled godman managed to convince some locals to help him, many others refused to be taken in by his theory and approached the administration demanding action against him, the SP said.

“The police are examining the matter from the law and order point of view but as the structure is located on no man’s land in an eco-sensitive zone, the forest department will have to be involved for any action against the encroachment,” Konde said.

He said the spot is hard to reach and it takes two-three days to reach it from Wancham and Jatoli — the last two villages in the Sunderdhunga river valley.

Konde said the antecedents of the self-proclaimed baba are being looked into.

Sources said the baba keeps changing his name and appears to be a “man of dubious character”.

“He sometimes calls himself Chaitanya Akash and sometimes Aditya Kailash. It is difficult to say which of the two names is his real name,” a source told PTI.

He keeps meeting politicians also. It seems that he came to stay here after he was denied shelter in Dwarahat and Haridwar, another source said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rishikesh:

After the torrential rains in Uttarakhand, the water level of the Ganga River in Rishikesh witnessed a surge on Sunday. As the water level of the river reached the Triveni Ghat Aarti Sthal, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) issued an alert for travellers and warned them to avoid the ghats at night.

Lokjeet, Superintendent of Police (Rural), Dehradun, said the police are in constant touch with the administration and that the people residing near the river banks have been displaced.

“The rise in water level was predicted earlier. We are in constant contact with the administration and concerned departments. The police are also taking preventive actions. People living near the river bank have been displaced. Efforts are being made to stop people from visiting the river banks,” he told ANI.

The Meteorological Centre in Uttarakhand has predicted heavy rainfall over several parts of the state until July 10.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in many places, with extremely heavy rainfall in isolated areas in the Kumaon region. Heavy rains are also expected in the Chamoli, Rudraprayag, and Pauri districts of Uttarakhand on July 7.

The weather report also predicts heavy rains in the Dehradun, Tehri, Haridwar, and Uttarkashi districts on Sunday.

“Thunderstorms with lightning and intense to very intense spells are likely on July 8-9 in the hills and plains of the state,” stated the forecast.

“Heavy rains have also been predicted in the Tehri, Pauri, Bageshwar, Almora, Nainital, and Champawat districts for July 10,” according to the weather report.

Given the heavy rainfall alert, the state government has appealed to all residents to stay in safe areas and remain cautious due to the potential disasters caused by heavy rains.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday directed the district magistrates of all concerned districts to remain on high alert regarding the forecast of heavy to very heavy rainfall in nine districts on July 7.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This year’s first major spell of rain has led to a few roads being blocked and water entering houses in some parts of Uttarakhand. A silver lining to the tragedy, however, is that fires raging in forests were doused in some of the places where the rainfall occurred.

A cloudburst in Someshwar in Almora district on Wednesday caused the destruction of crops and farmers with both small and large landholdings suffered losses. Water also entered several houses. Farmers in Pithoragarh have also demanded compensation from the government for crop losses caused by a hailstorm.  

In some parts of the Kumaon region, under which the Almora district falls, the rainfall led to forest fires being extinguished. 

In the Bageshwar district of the region, the heavy caused traffic jams in many places on the Kapkot Bageshwar road. Many people were also stuck while trying to cross a small stream that had a lot of water flowing in it because of the rain. 

Vehicular movement was also stopped in a market near the Purola Hudoli ravine in Uttarkashi district.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court rapped the Uttarakhand government while hearing a petition on forest fires in the state and said the administration cannot depend only on rain and cloud seeding to control the blazes.

The government said only 0.1 per cent of the forest cover in the hill state was on fire. It also told the court that 398 incidents of forest fires were recorded and 350 cases have been registered. 

New Delhi:

A grandmother and a mother and her two daughters stepped out for a family outing in Dehradun in Uttarakhand this morning – to cast their votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which began today with 102 contests across 21 states and union territories.

A photo shared by news agency ANI showed Prabha Sharma (the grandmother) and her daughter, Preeti Kaushik standing either side of their Shamita and Sakshi Kaushik, their granddaughters and daughters. All four are proudly displaying inked fingers, the mark of having cast their votes.

All five of Uttarakhand’s Lok Sabha seats are voting today. The BJP won all five seats in the 2019 election, and also won the Assembly election last year, thumping the Congress. The saffron party won 47 of the 70 Assembly seats, an impressive return if it was 10 seats fewer than last time.

The Congress won just 19 seats, but that was an increase of eight seats and a 4.39 per cent vote share. The opposition party will hope that improvement can carry over into this election.

READ | Voting In 21 States Today As India’s National Election Begins: 10 Points

Dehradun falls under the Haridwar seat, which has been held by the BJP’s Ramesh Pokhriyal since 2014, before which it was held by former Chief Minister Harish Rawat for the Congress.

The BJP has, however, given this ticket to Trivendra Singh Rawat, who served briefly as the Chief Minister, in this election. The Congress has fielded Virender Rawat as the joint opposition candidate.

READ | Poor Health Facilities, Winter Tourism: Key Issues In Garhwal

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Uttarakhand, a newly married couple, in their wedding finery, posed outside a government school-turned-polling booth in Pauri Garhwal after having cast their votes.

#LokSabhaElections2024 | Uttarakhand: A newly-married couple voted for the general elections today, at a polling booth in Pauri Garhwal today. pic.twitter.com/orHQgAT06C

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

The Garhwal seat has also been with the BJP since 2014, with BC Khanduri winning first and then Tirath Singh Rawat in 2019. This time Anil Baluni has the BJP ticket. He faces the Congress’ Ganesh Godiyal.

Dehradun:

An FIR has been lodged against BJP MLA Mahesh Jeena and four unidentified people for allegedly misbehaving with Dehradun Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Kumar and threatening him recently. The alleged incident had led to a strike by municipal corporation employees in the town.

Mr Jeena, who represents the Salt assembly seat in Almora, has been booked at the Kotwali police station under sections 147 (rioting), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has also directed Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey to conduct a probe into the alleged incident and submit his report to the government in 15 days.

The IAS association of Uttarakhand on Thursday issued a statement condemning the alleged incident. It alleged that the MLA, with four of his aides, created a ruckus at the municipal corporation office in Dehradun on March 5 over the allocation of a tender.

He allegedly abused and threatened a senior clerk in the office and a contractor. When the matter was conveyed to the commissioner, the MLA allegedly also abused the commissioner and other officials, the statement said. A purported video of the incident has gone viral, in which the MLA can be seen arguing angrily with the municipal commissioner.

However, the MLA denied the allegations saying he had not abused the municipal commissioner.

Mr Jeena said he had asked the corporation employees to show documents on whose basis a Haryana-based company was not allowed to take part in the tender process. The officials did not provide the documents and misbehaved with him, he said.

The strike by municipal corporation employees was withdrawn after the lodging of the FIR and the probe order against the MLA Sonika.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dehradun:

Six people died in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district on Tuesday when their car fell into the Kali river near Lakhanpur, police said.

Pithoragarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Lokeshwar Singh said the incident took place on the Dharchula-Lipulekh road late in the evening when the victims were returning after a ‘darshan’ of Adi Kailash.

Two of them were from Bengaluru, two from Telangana and two from Uttarakhand, he said.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident and prayed for their families.

The SP said the work of recovering the bodies could not be started due to darkness and adverse geographical conditions.

The search work will start on Wednesday morning, he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pithoragarh:

Several people living along the international border in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts of Uttarakhand have dual citizenship of India and Nepal, and such people are being identified, an official said.

“We have found such cases in Pithoragarh’s Jhulaghat and some areas of Champawat district on the Indo-Nepal border. The district administrations concerned have been informed about this,” D N Bhombe, Deputy Inspector General, Almora region of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), said.

The SSB officer said that the personnel deployed in all the 54 border outposts of the force in Uttarakhand are trying to identify such people living in the Indian territory, who have the dual citizenship of India and Nepal.

He said the SSB is also taking the help of the district administrations concerned in this regard.

Pithoragarh Deputy District Magistrate Anil Kumar Shukla said there are two types of Nepalese living in India. He said the first category is of those women who got married and came to India, but neither gave up their Nepalese citizenship nor acquired the Indian citizenship.

Shukla said the second category is of those people whose entire family came from Nepal and settled in India without taking the Indian citizenship.

“We have found many cases in which they fraudulently obtained Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards in India. We immediately cancelled their fake documents,” he added.

The deputy inspector general of the SSB said that apart from smuggling of wild animals’ body parts and drugs, we are also giving priority to preventing human trafficking, and we have formed special teams for this. He said the SSB personnel keep close contact with the villagers living in the border areas in order to gain information about the arrival of any outsider there.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today responded to Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan’s post about the former’s visit to Parvati Kund and Jageshwar Temples. He also invited the actor to visit Rann Utsav in Kutch. PM Modi also added that Mr Bachchan’s visit to the Statue of Liberty in Vadodara is also due.

On Saturday, Mr Bachchan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “T 4799 – The religiosity .. the mystery .. the divinity of Kailash Parbat , has been intriguing me for long.” However, he added that he will never be able to visit the place. “And the tragedy is that I shall never be able to visit it in person,” he said on the platform. A lot of users asked him about his well-being and his reasons for not being able to go there.

Replying to the same, the Prime Minister said, “My visit to Parvati Kund and Jageshwar Temples was truly mesmerising. In the coming weeks, Rann Utsav is starting and I would urge you to visit Kutch. Your visit to Statue of Unity is also due.”

My visit to Parvati Kund and Jageshwar Temples was truly mesmerising.

In the coming weeks, Rann Utsav is starting and I would urge you to visit Kutch. Your visit to Statue of Unity is also due. https://t.co/VRyRRy3YZ8

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 15, 2023

Meanwhile, PM Modi offered prayers at the Gauri Kund, a holy site for Hindus, in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand and caught a glimpse of the Adi Kailash on October 12. He began his daylong visit to the border state by catching a glimpse of the Adi Kailash peak, believed to be the abode of Shiva. He was wearing a traditional outfit, complete with a white turban and a ‘ranga’ (upper body garment).

Sharing some more glimpses from Parvati Kund. pic.twitter.com/knqEzDpa6U

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 12, 2023

He also performed aarti at the Shiva Parvati temple along the banks of Parvati Kund in Jolingkong and meditated with folded hands in front of the Adi Kailash peak. From there, he reached the Gunji village and interacted with the locals and attended an exhibition that had local artefacts on display, accompanied by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.

On the other hand, “Big B” recently celebrated his 81st birthday. He shared a collage featuring an image from his Wednesday evening greet and meet session on Instagram and thanked his fans and supporters. He wrote in the caption, “This love and affection is beyond any effort to repay it .. blessed and filled with unending gratitude.”