The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Congress prepares to confront CM
Announces statewide agitation from next month
S.M.A. Kazmi
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
As the winter chill sets in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and Chief Minister Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) prepares to give positions of various government bodies to disgruntled legislators of the BJP to keep his seat warm, opposition Congress party has chalked out a strategy to corner the BJP state government ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress, which has already started a membership drive in the state, has also decided to launch a statewide agitation in the first and second week of December against the alleged failure of the state government.

The party proposes to hold dharnas, rallies and demonstrations to highlight the 'double standards' of the state government. The Congress would try to take up the issues of non-performance of the state government and infighting within the BJP for plum positions during the agitation.

While, Chief Minister Khanduri has been waiting for an opportune time to grant positions to his disgruntled legislators, the Congress has been waiting in the wings to exploit the issue.

"The BJP stands totally exposed. The bestowal of positions to party MLAs has shown the true face of the party and its leaders of being so desperate for the spoils of office. We will bring it before the masses of the state," Suryakant Dhasman, a senior Congress leader said.

Moreover, the party would also take up the issue of alleged failure of public distribution system in the state. "The food and supplies minister submitted his resignation to stem the rot in the Public Distribution System. This is proof enough of the going-ons.”

“Chief Minister Khanduri has been kept busy by the infighting within the BJP and has no time for developmental works," said Dhasmana.

"Growing unemployment, rising crime and irregularities in the master plan are the other issues that we would be raising," said Yashpal Arya, Uttarakhand Congress chief.

It was the issue of large scale grant of ministerial level positions to party leaders during the previous Congress regime of former Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari that was exploited by the BJP in the 2007 assembly elections. The BJP has promised that its government would not give such positions to its leaders.

However, Chief Minister Khanduri faced strong dissidence from party legislators led by former Chief Minister Koshiyari. These legislators went enmasse to senior central party leaders against the Chief Minister. As a solution, it was decided that party legislators would be adjusted in some positions.

The CM who had earlier given more than 40 such positions to party leaders, now had to take out 28 such positions out of the purview of the Office of Profit Act for his legislators. He has yet to distribute these positions.

Begins membership campaign
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
Mahanagar Youth Congress today conducted a membership campaign in the DL Road area of Dehradun where hundreds of people pledged their allegiance to the policies and programmes of the Congress.

Welcoming them into the party fold, senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana said the Congress has always stood by the principles of secularism and has never resorted to divisive politics.

Earlier, Mahanagar Youth Congress president Dinesh Kaushal said membership campaigns were being held across all wards with an aim of strengthening the party. He said the waiving of loans for farmers and the start of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme were some decisions of the UPA that proved to be of great public interest. Congress Panchayat Cell president Rajesh Uniyal said the people’s faith in Congress was growing rapidly.

NSUI president Jasvinder Singh, Kishore Uniyal, Arvind Kumar and Swaran Singh were other prominent speakers on the occasion.

Dental services lack bite
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
Notwithstanding the rising number of patients, dental services in the state continue to be dictated by visionless policies that are discouraging bright doctors from joining the government hospitals.

An uninspiring two-room set is what the dentistry department looks like at the Doon Hospital where patients’ rush is huge. Despite the fact that the main hospital in the state recently went in for expansion, the planners forgot to allocate an independent space for a dental unit in their scheme of things.

In fact, meagre financial allocations and utter disregard for the opinion of dentists by policy planners has severely hampered the growth of dental services in the state. Further, there is no separate allocation made for the dentistry department throughout the state. However, if separate dental units were created at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, making a dental surgeon accountable at each level, the fund crunch problem would be solved. “Limited space and absence of paramedical staff is a deterrent when we have 100 to 150 patients coming with their problems daily,” said Dr J.D.S. Rana, dental surgeon, Doon Hospital.

A dental unit with nine multi-specialty branches comprising Endodontia, Pedodontia, Periodontia, Prosthodontia, Orthodontia etc, can be found in several modern government hospitals in the country. However, in the absence of these units here, patients in need of restorative treatment are forced to visit private clinics, where fees start from 20,000 upwards.

Usually, people flocking various government hospitals in the state complain of gum problem arising due to improper hygiene and dental caries. But with near absence of super-specialty units, oral surgery or implants cannot be performed although several doctors at government hospitals are qualified. “Extracting a tooth is the only thing we do, wouldn’t it be better if our energies went into detecting the problem beforehand. But there is no room for restorative surgery here,” said a government doctor on conditions of anonymity.

Even the small OPD (dental) at the Doon hospital does not have proper sterilisation procedure or any hi-tech equipment like the RVG (Radio Videograph).

Sadly, and in this apathetic state of affairs, it is only the patients who stand to lose.

Resource group to help students with better results
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
Poor performance and declining interest among Uttarakhand school board students in Mathematics, Science and English subjects has forced the education department to constitute a resource group of teachers who would suggest new and interesting methods of teaching and learning.

The group would look into the difficulties faced by students, as well as the problems faced by the teachers.

The group will then compile a report with their suggestions about bringing changes in the teaching and learning procedures to be adopted by government schools.

“The resource group comprising of experts would visit the schools to elicit views of the teachers who are teaching the subjects and devise methods that would make learning and teaching interesting for students and teachers as well,” informed Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh, secretary (School Education).

After the Shiksha Parishad began conducting school examinations independently from Uttar Pradesh, it has been hit by poor results year after year, forcing the education department to introduce measures such as the grading system and lenient marking at lower levels from the next session.

The examination results of both Intermediate and High School Examinations (2007-08) organised by the Shiksha Parishad are not very encouraging.

In the last academic session, 14,616 students failed in English, 2052 students failed in Mathematics, 2009 failed in Biology, 6357 failed in Physics and 7033 failed in Chemistry. The High School result too paint a dismal picture, in 2007-08, 42210 students failed in English, and 41076 failed in mathematics and 41785 in Science.

Besides constitution of a resource group, the education department is also taking stern action against absentee teachers in schools.

Several schools across the state are usually working without teachers and the problem is all the more acute in the hills.

“We will be gathering information about absentee teachers from the education department, besides surprise checks would be conducted to check on teachers and severe action would be initiated against erring teachers, all these steps are aimed at bringing improvement in the education system,” informed, Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh secretary Education( Schools).

‘Positive attitude helps improve memory’
Divya Semwal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
Facing endless problems in recalling any matter and living a life of an average student motivated Rajesh Pawar (memory man of Indian book of record) to do something fruitful for the society to get rid of memory loss issue. "I always suffered from poor memory and could never get good grades in school. This kind of problem made me conscious towards the needs of several like me. I ventured into it after researching on memory loss related issues for good seven years", disclosed Rajesh Pawar.

From past 10 years all over India Rajesh Pawar has been giving classes on better memory workout. Presently, memory man was in Dehradun for a three day programme. "Mostly students participated in the programme who face problem during examinations in recalling things. “Till now I have been successful in helping them with their poor memory problems", said Pawar.

Various techniques to overcome memory loss issues are taught to people. "The main funda of the programme is to associate any matter with imagination. If anyone tries to associate matter with imagination then clarity sets in and retention power becomes better,” he said.

However this 'memory man' even believes in the power of belief and strongly support that a positive and a determined person can do better when it comes to memory loss issues. "First of all the person has to be positive," said Pawar.

Hailing from Indore, Rajesh Pawar has been travelling all over the country. "Response in mostly all cities have been positive. “As far as future plans are concerned I just don't want be in big cities only, I even want to visit villages and to help every citizen of our country," he added.

House tax rates yet to be fixed
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 23
There is no certainty on the direction the new house tax policy of Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) could take as the basis to the fixation of rates is still to be ascertained.

The DMC had recently approved a self tax assessment house taxation policy, which had its basis on the carpet area of the concerned property. The corporation had claimed that the policy was most suitable as it would benefit old houses.

New houses will have to pay a little more as the entire process entails increase of the tax ranging from 10 to 15 per cent. But then, it would be the rates that would decide whether a resident will have to pay less or more house tax.

Dehradun chief executive officer Sushil Kumar admitted that the basis to fixation of rates could be a number of factors. It could be circle rates, availability of sewage and other basic amenities and, of course, the category of the locality and the width of the road.

The corporation presently earns a revenue of Rs 3.5 crore through house tax which is expected to rise to Rs 7.8 crore after the implementation of new tax policy.

Formulating the new house tax policy has come as major challenge for the corporation particularly when the councillors were in no mood to accept any major hike in house tax.

Significantly, the new house taxation policy had certainly done away with being at the mercy of the assessment system. The tendency of influential individuals getting away with paying little will certainly be checked.

The house tax in the city were last revised in the period 1999-2004. Similarly, for the newly added 12 gram sabhas, house taxes are still to be ascertained.

Teresa clinches Best House trophy
Vishal Thakur

Dehradun, November 23
Teresa house bagged the Best House trophy and Ranjeet House won the Best March Past trophy in the annual sports of Doon International School here today. Anjali Walia was declared the Best Athlete in Senior Girls and Kaushal Shah was the won the Best Athlete award in the senior Boys.

Result:

100 mt Race for (9,10,11 and 12 class) (Girls): 1 Anjali Walia, 2 Piyushi, 3 Ruchika, 4 Priya.

100 mt Race for (9,10,11 and 12 class) (Boys): 1 Pravez Umar, 2 Santosh, 3 Krishna, 4 Derious

200 mt Race for (9,10,11 and 12) (Girls): 1 Anjali Waha, 2 Piyushi, 3 Nidhi, 4 Priya

200 mt Race for (9,10,11 and 12) (Boys): 1 Kima, 2 Santosh, 3 Pravez, 4 Dinku

100 mt Race for (6,7 and 8 class) (Girls): 1 Manisha Santiliza, 2 Santiliza, 3 Kushboo

100 mt Race for (6,7 and 8 class) (Boys): 1 Kushal, 2 Rishi Kantha, 3 Vipin, 4 Aman

200 mt Race for (6,7 and 8) (Girls): 1 Manisha, 2 Khushboo, 3 Nidhi Singh, 4 Srishti

200 mt Race for (6,7 and 8) (Boys): 1 Kavshal, 2 Rishikant, 3 Gajendra, 4 Mohit

4x100 mts Relay Race for Class (9,10,11, and 12) (Girls): 1 Garima and Group, 2 Anjali Wali and group, 3 Piyushi and group, 4 Ishmeet and group

4x100 mts Relay Race for Class (9,10,11, and 12) (Boys): 1 Santosh and group, 2 Omprakash and group, 3 Omprakash and group, 4 Gurdeep and group

4x100 mts Relay Race for Class (6,7 and 8) (Girls): 1 Manisha and group, 2 Khushboo and

group, 3 Arushi and Group, 4 Anchal and Group

4x100 mts Relay Race for Class (6,7 and 8) (Boys): 1 Rishikantta and Group, 2 Vipin and

Group, 3 Kaushal and Group, 4 Naveen and group

4x80 mts- Relay Race (Girls): 1 Rupali and Group, 2 Akansha and Group, 3 Shruli and Group, 4 Aisha and Group.

Hoopla Race (Boys): 1 Shashank, 2 Sarthak, 3 Chirag

Pussy Cat Race (Girls): 1 Lucky Gusain, 2 Dhara Bisht, 3 Gargi Bisht

Postman Race (Boys): 1 Dhruv Uniyal, 2 Aman Sharma, 3 Devashish

Skipping Race (Girls): 1 Anandita Sisodra, 2 Abilasha Ranthan, 3 S.Uniyal

Roadies (Boys): 1 Abhishekh Rana, 2 Ishan Juyal, 3 Taha Ali Khan.

Cricket association submits papers to BCCI
Vishal Thakur

Dehradun, November 23
Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) has submitted a set of documents to a committee constituted by BCCI’s to authenticate their claims of being the legitimate claimant of cricketing in the state.

Speaking at the press conference organised by the association to declare its annual calendar for the year 2008-09 here today, Congress MLA, Jot Singh said that “BCCI committee had asked us to submit our document a month back, now it is on them to decide on the authority of our claim”.

He also expressed the need of constructing a Turf Wickets in the state, so that the state players get use to of playing on such wickets.

All those players who are registered with DCA and CAU will be eligible for selection in the various categories that will to be held at Kanpur, said P.C.Verma, secretary of CAU.

We are on the job, says UCAU secy

The dream of Uttarakhand to get affiliated with the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) may come true in the near future as the United Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (UCAU) is working hard in this regard.

“There are three good grounds in the state capable of hosting national and international matches,” said secretary of UCAU Rajinder Pal.

He said that efforts were on to bring together other cricket organisation in the state. Speaking about the activities of UCAU, he said, “The association will organise cricket tournaments in all districts of Uttarakhand.”

As per the calendar the league will be organising following activities in the state:

Dehradun District Cricket League for the year 2008-09 will begin from 5th December 2008 and last till 15 December 2009.

Coaching Camp for U-16 Boys and Girls will begin from 10th December 2008 to 20 January 2009.

Third Martyrs Memorial Inter-District Cricket Competition will begin from 20 January 2009 to 30 April 2009.

Inter District Woman Cricket Competition will begin from 5 February to 12 February 2009.

District level u-16 Boys Cricket Competition will begin from 15 February to 25 February 2009.

State level selection process for seniors will begin from 10 April.

State level coaching camp will begin from 15 April to 25 April 2009.

27th Gold Cup Cricket Competition will begin from 10 May to 25 May 2009.

u-16 girls schools competition will begin from 2 October to 15 October 2009.

MKP win hockey title

Dehradun, November 23
Mahadevi Kanya Pathshala (MKP) became the new champion of Women Hockey Tournament. In the finals, MKP defeated DAV (PG) College 2-1 to lift the title. It was an interesting final played here between the two teams. The match began at a fast pace with MKP on the offence from the very beginning. It opened its account in the 18th minute of the first half to take their opponent by surprise. It was Shivani Bisht for MKP who dodged two players before scoring a goal for her team.

MKP was on a constant attack in first half keepers her opponent defence on its toes.

The DAV’s attempts to pull off an equaliser were in vain as all their moves died half way to opponent goalpost. At the half time the scores were 1-0. The second half MKP’s forward struck again in the 45th minute to make it 2-0. Shivani took a perfect hit from the right to bring cheers to the MKP camp and to score her second goal of the match.

DAV’s effort to pull back a goal finally paid when it scored in the last minute. DAV scored through Minakshi in the 50th minute to reduce the lead. But they lost the game to MKP. — OC