The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Railway holiday home awaits opening
The railway holiday home that awaits opening in Haridwar. Haridwar, November 21
Built to provide boarding and lodging facilities to the railway staff, a holiday home was inaugurated four months ago. However, it is yet to become functional. The holiday home was constructed at the Haridwar railway complex on the persistent demand of the employees visiting the holy city.

The railway holiday home that awaits opening in Haridwar. Tribune photo: Rameshwar

Trust in memory of freedom fighter
Dehradun, November 21
In memory of the late freedom fighter Abbas Tayyab Ji, who spent his last days in Mussoorie, his well- wishers have formed Abbas Tayyab Ji Educational and Charitable Trust under the chairmanship of Justice S.H.A Raza.

Photo exhibition opens in Doon
Wildlife photographer Bhumesh Bharti interacts with a visitor at the photo exhibition in Dehradun on Thursday. Dehradun, November 21
A three-day national photo exhibition started at the forecourts of Uttarakhand forest headquarters, here today. The exhibition, organised by Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve, would be attended by photographers from across the state, including Anup Sah, Satpal Gandhi, Bhumesh Bharti, Dhirendra Bisht and Gagan Mehta.

Wildlife photographer Bhumesh Bharti interacts with a visitor at the photo exhibition in Dehradun on Thursday. Tribune photo: Anil P. Rawat

Satellite link for remote colleges
Dehradun, November 21
The Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (U-SAC) is all set to link the remote colleges of the state through remote sensing. While disclosing this, (U-SAC) Director Dr. M.M.Kimothi said that there are several colleges in remote areas of Uttarakhand, which faces shortage of lecturers. “By interlinking the remote colleges, this problem would be solved by way of lectures through video conferencing,” he said.

NCC week celebrated
Brig PP Pahwa flags of the Run for Fun. Dehradun, November 21
As a part of ongoing celebration of National Cadet Corps (NCC) week, Heritage School today organised a race “Run for Fun”. With total strength of 600 students from different schools and colleges of the state, chief guest Brig. P.P.Pahwa flagged of the race at 7:30 in the morning. The purpose of the race was to spread awareness about clean, green and prosperous Uttarakhand.

Brig PP Pahwa flags of the Run for Fun. Tribune phtograph

Bhawanpur block bags trophy
Haridwar, November 21
In the recently held three day Inter School District Cultural and Sport Championship, Bhawanpur block clinched the overall trophy. With 320 overall championship points Bhagwanpur was way ahead of the Narsain block, which could gather only 246 points.

	Koshiyari elected to Rajya Sabha Koshiyari polled 42 votes while his rival Manish Verma failed to get any. The Congress with 20 legislators and Bahujan Samaj Party with eight legislators abstained from voting S.M.A. Kazmi Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 21 Former Uttarakhand chief minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhagat Singh Koshiyari was today elected to the Rajya Sabha. Election for the lone vacant seat was held in the state assembly premises. Koshiyari is a legislator from Kapkot in Bagheshwar district of Kumaon region. He will resign from his seat after being sworn in as Rajya Sabha member. According to Mahesh Chandra, returning officer, Koshiyari got 42 votes while his rival Manish Verma, an independent, failed to get any vote. The ruling BJP has 36 legislators in the assembly while Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), their alliance partner, has three members. The three independent legislators are also part of the BJP government. The Congress with 20 legislators and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with eight legislators abstained from voting. Interestingly, it was seven Congress legislators who had proposed the name of a local Congress leader as an independent that necessitated the elections. Later, Uttarakhand Congress legislature party left Manish Verma in the lurch following strict instructions from the party high command to abstain from voting. BSP had already decided to refrain from voting. “We had no interest in both BJP as well as Congress- sponsored candidate,” said Shahzad, BSP legislative party chief and legislator from Bahadarabad in Haridwar district. Meanwhile, Koshiyari said he would try to become the voice of people of the state at the national level and would raise Uttarakhand-related issues. Koshiyari was asked to come to the Rajya Sabha following dissidence by party legislators against Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd). It was decided by BJP leadership to send Koshiyari to the Rajya Sabha to stem the dissidence against the CM. On then other hand, the Rajya Sabha election has exposed the growing factionalism in the Uttarakhand Congress. Harak Singh Rawat, leader of the opposition, who had planned to make a local Congress leader fight as an independent to give ruling BJP a fight had to back out after strong rebuke from the party leadership.
	Railway holiday home awaits opening Sandip Rawat Tribune News Service Haridwar, November 21 Built to provide boarding and lodging facilities to the railway staff, a holiday home was inaugurated four months ago. However, it is yet to become functional. The holiday home was constructed at the Haridwar railway complex on the persistent demand of the employees visiting the holy city. In 2006, Union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav laid the foundation stone of the holiday home and it was built in three years. The holiday home was inaugurated on July 24, 2008, by the minister for Railways, R. Velu. However, even after four months of the formal inauguration, it has not become operational. “It’s high time that the holiday home be operationalised; what’s the use of spending lakhs on it. We will take up this matter witj higher authorities in the department,” said Deepak Khanna, secretary of the northern railway union. A total of Rs 20 lakh was spent on the holiday home, which comprises four bedrooms and one common rest hall along with the kitchen. “It would take some time before the holiday home is officially opened. There were some technicalities that is delaying the process,” said station superintendent S. Goswamy.
	Trust in memory of freedom fighter Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 21 In memory of the late freedom fighter Abbas Tayyab Ji, who spent his last days in Mussoorie, his well- wishers have formed Abbas Tayyab Ji Educational and Charitable Trust under the chairmanship of Justice S.H.A Raza. The board of trustees includes MP Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Kurshid, S. Farooqui, Mohammed Akbar Khan, Anil Nodia, Madhu Sharma and Samaan Habib, the granddaughter of the late freedom fighter. Former MP and secretary of the Trust Paripurnand Painuily said the Trust firmly believes in working for the deprived sections of the society and would explore means to cater to education and employment needs of the girl students belonging to Dalit and tribal sections. He would be declaring the Trust’s programmes during the board meeting on December 6. Painuily, who is also the treasurer, held that the Trust would also extend its activities to other parts of the country in the next two years. Abbas Tayyabji headed the Congress in 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned during the salt agitation. Tyyab Ji grave is in Landour where he was buried on June 9, 1936.
	Photo exhibition opens in Doon Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 21 A three-day national photo exhibition started at the forecourts of Uttarakhand forest headquarters, here today. The exhibition, organised by Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve, would be attended by photographers from across the state, including Anup Sah, Satpal Gandhi, Bhumesh Bharti, Dhirendra Bisht and Gagan Mehta. Inaugurating the exhibition, state forest minister Bansidhar Bhagat said such events should be held regularly as these impart knowledge about the Uttarakhand’s natural beauty to the general public. He also released “Forest Statistics 2007-08” and “Common Fiber Yielding Plants of North West Himalayas”, authored by STS Lepcha, Sanjay Bhati and Anuj Kumar. State chief wildlife warden Srikant Chandola, chief conservator planning STS Lepcha, conservator of Nandadevi Biosphere reserve Paramjeet Singh and DFO, Dehradun, B.K. Gangte, were among those present on the occasion. Meanwhile, Dhirendra Bisht won the first prize in the pictorial category for his Har-Ki-Pauri photograph while Gagan Mehta stood first in Uttarkhand nature section. Satpal Gandhi bagged the second position in the same section.
	Satellite link for remote colleges Umesh Dewan Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 21 The Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (U-SAC) is all set to link the remote colleges of the state through remote sensing. While disclosing this, (U-SAC) Director Dr. M.M.Kimothi said that there are several colleges in remote areas of Uttarakhand, which faces shortage of lecturers. “By interlinking the remote colleges, this problem would be solved by way of lectures through video conferencing,” he said. Meanwhile, inquiries revealed that equipment required to interlink the colleges is already lying there in the colleges from past two years but nothing has been done to make it operational. When asked in this regard Dr. Kimothi said that they are ready to make the things operational and hopefully process of interlinking the remote colleges would be completed soon. Dr. Kimothi further informed that EMRI Service (108) could be utilised for tele-medicine purpose as well. “The 108 emergency vehicle could be used for multipurpose. For instance, when there is no emergency, the vehicle, with the help of remote sensing, could be used for tele-medicine,” he informed. Highlighting another area on which U-SAC is working hard, Dr. Kimothi said that they intend to form village resource center, where villages could utilise the benefits of the remote sensing mechanism for varied purposes. Dr. Kimothi also added that they would be preparing a digital database of all the information about Uttarakhand. “There are 17 layers of information. What we want to do is to club all the information and make one database, so that it could be used in one projection,” he revealed, adding, “We must know what types of changes are going on in the Himalayan region. We should know that if there is 1-degree change in temperature in Himalayan region, what would be its effect. For this, information under one projection is required.” It may be mentioned here that U-SAC was commissioned by Government of Uttarakhand, an autonomous organisation of Department of Science and Technology on September 21, 2005, with it’s headquarter at Dehradun.
	NCC week celebrated Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 21 As a part of ongoing celebration of National Cadet Corps (NCC) week, Heritage School today organised a race “Run for Fun”. With total strength of 600 students from different schools and colleges of the state, chief guest Brig. P.P.Pahwa flagged of the race at 7:30 in the morning. The purpose of the race was to spread awareness about clean, green and prosperous Uttarakhand. The race started from Heritage School and after passing through Subhash Road, Aarah Ghar, East Canal Road, it finally converged at Heritage School. Senior wing (Boys) of DAV College Deepak Pandey and Senior wing (Girls) of Mahadevi Kanya Patashala College Nisha Rani bagged the first position in the race. Every year national cadet corps day is celebrated all over the country on November 23rd but it is for the first time that weeklong celebrations have been organised for NCC day.