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BJP, Cong undecided on Haridwar seat
Remove hoardings or face action, parties warned
Colleges at loggerheads over varsity fund
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Protest over shifting of vet hospital
Members of the Nehru Foundation for Youth Development protest against shifting of the veterinary hospital in Dehradun on Thursday. A Tribune photograph
Ayurvedic doctors demand pay panel perks
Cine stars to lift SP campaign
Camp beckons adventure lovers
Kumbh Mela Security
Guv flags off Everest expedition
Governor BL Joshi flags-off the expedition in Dehradun on Thursday. A Tribune photograph
Legal literacy must to fight domestic violence: Experts
Participants at the training camp in Dehradun on Thursday. A Tribune photograph
Experts share views on state’s water quality
Dolphin staff, students donate blood
Zila panchayats seek more powers
Liquor seized
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BJP, Cong undecided on Haridwar seat
Dehradun, March 19 While the Congress still remains undecided due to intense pressure from several leaders vying with each other, BJP finds itself in a piquant situation even after announcing its candidate. Uttarakhand education minister Madan Kaushik, who was chosen as the BJP candidate, had to withdraw from the field following pressure from 'sadhus' and 'sants' led by Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal, who wanted Swami Chinmayanand to be the party candidate from Haridwar. In accordance with the instructions of the party high command, Kaushik, much against the wishes of Chief Minister Khanduri and state party unit, withdrew from the seat. And although the name of Swami Yatendranand Giri was floated, the party high command has not yet finalised the candidate. According to sources, a fresh panel of three names has again been forwarded to the high command for consideration despite mounting pressure from the VHP chief to adjust Swami Chinmayanand, a former union minister. The panel includes the names of Swami Yatendranand Giri, Uttarakhand BJP organising secretary Naresh Bansal and Suresh Chand Jain, BJP legislator from Roorkee. It is expected that BJP high command would take a final decision soon. On the other hand, the situation is similar in the Congress camp. Former Uttarakhand Congress chief and former Rajya Sabha MP Harish Rawat is the front-runner for the nomination while Braham Swarup Brahmchari, another senior leader and a saint, too is in fray. Two former state ministers, Hira Singh Bisht and Shoorveer Singh Sajwan, have also pitched in for the seat. Both are camping in New Delhi to impress upon the party high command to consider their candidature. The two leaders claim that they had in the past fought Lok Sabha elections from Tehri Garhwal seat and three assembly segments of the erstwhile Tehri Lok Sabha seat, which now form part of the Haridwar constituency. Sajwan claimed that he was a party legislator from Rishikesh from 2002 to 2007. |
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Remove hoardings or face action, parties warned
Roorkee, March 19 The warning comes from district officer in charge of the code of conduct BS Negi. Posters, flags, hoardings and banners can be seen pasted on walls, electric poles, chowks and markets. Even residences and shops have not been spared by overzealous party activists. Negi said he had asked all parties to remove the material on their own or else the authorities would remove the same and the cost would have to be borne by the parties concerned. The orders state that the parties have to take permission from owners of private places before pasting the propaganda material on their property. If this is not done, the aggrieved citizens can submit a written complaint with election officials. Instructions have also been issued by the district election officer to all officials, including tehsildars, in this connection. |
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Colleges at loggerheads over varsity fund
Dehradun, March 19 There is a disagreement between the two over providing invigilators for the DBS centre, which is also an examination centre for the Hemwati Nandan Garhwal University beginning tomorrow. This will be the first time that exams for private and regular students will be held together at DAV (PG) College premises with as many as 27,000 students appearing in various disciplines. DBS College has also been made an exam centre. Principal of DBS College, Dr VK Maheshwari, is asking for a share in the contingency fund that will be received by DAV (PG) College from the university. Maheshwari said: “It is our right to receive contingency fund and they are liable to give us our share. We are holding the exams and are therefore entitled to receiving the contingency fund in proportion to the number of students appearing for the exams at our centre”. But DAV (PG) College principal, Dr Ashok Kumar Saxena, said: “There exists no such system for payment. All that universities provide is invigilator’s fee and that we will provide to DBS College for deploying their staff .”
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Protest over shifting of vet hospital
Dehradun, March 19 The hospital is one of the oldest and on account of its location and a good team of doctors is preferred by most people with pets. "The land for the hospital was donated in 1948 by a mahant of Jhanda Darbar Sahib for animal welfare. Over the years, lakhs of operations have been performed and other facilities provided to animals. But with its decision to shift the hospital, the state government is putting the lives of animals at risk,” said Jitendra Chauhan, state president of the foundation. With the hospital re-locatedin a far away area, not only people will have to look for other alternatives, but also spend a lot of money on private clinics. “This hospital has the best team of vetinary doctors and since several years, people of Uttarakhand have developed a special bonding with it. “Its relocation will force people from villages to spend a huge amount on doctors,” rued Jitendra Chauhan. The protesters demanded that the government re-looked into the matter or else they would launch an agitation.
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Ayurvedic doctors demand pay panel perks
Haridwar, March 19 “We doctors are considered life saviours, but the government doesn’t seem to recognise our value and the hardship we face while carrying out our job, which is mostly 24-hour,” said Dr Sameer Tiwari of the association. Another doctor, Sunita Fonia, said if the apathy of the college administration continues for one more week, they would discontinue their services totally. Joining hands at the agitation were students of the Panchkarm department, Shailya department and chemistry department Others present included Dr Neetu Singh, Archana Verma, Kavita Sharma, Kesho Ram, Ajay Saxena, Dinesh Verma, Daish Javed et al. The protesters also handed over a memorandum to the college principal. |
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Cine stars to lift SP campaign
Dehradun, March 19 SP’s national general secretary Vinod Barthwal today claimed that the state unit of party has sought the assistance of cine stars, including Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan and Anil Kapoor, to provide a boost to the party’s election campaign. While revealing that senior Congress leaders from the state were seeking an alliance with Samajwadi Party, Barthwal said the final decision will be taken after the March 21 rally. However, when asked that the Congress unit has denied the same, Barthwal said the Samajwadi Party strongly believes in strengthening of secular forces and any offer of alliance with Congress will be towards betterment of the country. He said the party would formally launch its campaign in Uttarakhand during the first week of April. |
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Camp beckons adventure lovers
Roorkee, March 19 RC Bhardwaj, deputy director of tourism department, said the main purpose of the camp is to generate interest for water sports among youth. “Our state has enough resources for water sports. We are looking forward to developing proper infrastructure in
this field. “These mini-camps will help generate interest in water sports in our youths, which will go a long way in promoting adventure tourism in the state,” said Bhardwaj. Apart from training, budding sportspersons are being provided equipment, including boats, pedals, life jackets etc. In addition, boarding and lodging, and diet are free for them. Meanwhile, the chief coach of the camp, Piyush Sharma, felt that the duration of such camps should be increased. “Although a week is a short time for a budding sportspersons to learn proper skills, yet the duration is enough to produce one’s interest in water games. “In my viewpoint, Uttarakhand has resources and basic ingredients in abundance that the sport needs. “And these resources should be harnessed to produce world-class kayaking and canoeing players,” said Sharma. “The budget, being allocated on the training programmes related to adventure
sports, should also be increased. “At the moment it is only 4.5 lakh annually, which should be increased,” he added. Many participants, belonging to nearby villages, including Laksar, Bhadrabad, Bhagwanpur, expressed satisfaction with the camp. “Riding kayaks and canoes is a new as well as enjoyable experience. We want to continue our practice, so more camps should be organised,” said many of them. “Many local players like Daljit Singh, Sonia Rana, Ganesh Koshiyar and Govind, have reached the national level. Many of them have even got government service under the sports quota. “ This is certainly a big inspiration for budding players,” said Sharma. |
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Kumbh Mela Security
Haridwar, March 19 Security has been beefed up on the directions of SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal. Meetings have been held with the members of the public, hoteliers, sants and traders, eliciting their views on security and related matters. A month ago, a series of meetings were held with bank officials in view of several cases of theft and burglary in banks. Meetings were also held with citizens at police stations to share information on crime and to give the police a people-friendly image. SSP Gunjiyal held a meeting of managers of hotels, restaurants, dharamshalas, rest houses, ashrams and event managers of the district and directed them to follow police directions. He took strong notice of reports of hotel and rest house owners checking in tourists without verification and without entering their identity cards. The SSP directed the managers to install CCTVs in their premises and more importantly at entrance gates. To check police preparedness, the SSP has been conducting demo exercises. Hoax calls are made to the police control room about live bombs and terrorists. One such call was made to the Har-Ki-Pauri PCR on two bags with explosives at a famous pilgrimage centre. Soon the bomb disposal squad, members of the quick reaction team (QRT) and Special Task Force (STF) sprung into action which created a panic among the locals, pilgrims and tourists. The area was cleared within minutes by the three teams. The suspicious bags were checked by a bomb disposal squad. The pomptness shown by the police teams was lauded by the SSP. Last week a railway police superintendent received a letter threatening that the Haridwar railway station would be blown up. Since then the police has been on high alert, considering the city’s religious and cultural importance. To solve the problem of traffic, specially during Maha Kumbh, DIG Alok Sharma today held a meeting with representatives of various representatives of villages located on Laksar road as the Kumbh traffic will be mainly on this road. The DIG apprised them of the co-operation needed from the villagers for the event. He also sought their suggestions and informed them about security steps.
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Guv flags off Everest expedition
Dehradun, March 19 Appreciating the efforts of the team, the Governor said it was the dream of every mountaineer to conquer Everest and all members of the team are lucky to be part of the expedition. Col. MM Masur said the team members have been trained for two months at Santopanth peak, which has a height of more than 7,000 meters. The entire expedition would cost two crores, he added. He also disclosed that four members of the team had already scaled Mount Everest in the past. After a trek of 11 days, the team would reach the Everest Base camp that is situated at a height of more than 8,000 meters. They would then scale the peak in during the first week of June.
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Legal literacy must to fight domestic violence: Experts
Dehradun, March 19 The workshop focused on the obstacles being encountered and discussed the issue threadbare in the framework of human rights and legal literacy. Urvashi Gandhi, multimedia publicity consultant with Breakthrough, a non-government organisation, said a shift in the mindset of the hill people had to be brought about “as domestic violence also covers mental torture and harassment. “But due to the traditional family set-up, women do not come out to report. In several cases, they are harassed by in-laws to bear a male child. They should come forward and file a complaint,” she said. She said in order to sensitise men on the issue, several multimedia campaigns had been launched. “Our highly successful campaign under the tagline Jago Rey led by famous film actor Boman Irani was aimed at shaking the conscience of the people on the issue of domestic violence. “The simple act of ringing the bell can be a help.The campaign was aired on prime time and was successful,” she explained. Sunita Menon, a consultant with Breakthrough, said provision of shelter homes was envisaged under the Act with magistrates empowered to issue orders for the same. She said very often the abused women dared not step out as they had nowhere to go. The workshop got a good response with several volunteers and educationists
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Experts share views on state’s water quality
Dehradun, March 19 Inaugurating the workshop, Anita Gupta, Regional Director, Central Ground Water Board, dwelt at length on the activities undertaken by the board, particularly in the hills and the out- come of the studies. Senior scientist Dr RP Singh spoke on collaborative studies and sharing of knowledge focusing on Himalayas and the concept of water reservoirs high up in the hills. He said this was analogous to the concept of biosphere reserves put forth by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource to sustain bio-diversity. He stressed on checks on the use of pesticides, insecticides and chemical fertilisers in the Himalayan region and called for more of organic farming in the hills. Guest of honour RN Verma gave details of ground water abstraction structures in Uttarakhand. He also spoke of measures to be adopted to conserve ground water and emphasised on the need of automation techniques for abstraction of ground water. Another participant, Dr VK Dadhwal gave a presentation on “Application of Remote-Sensing”. In the technical session, Prof Govind Joseph Chakarpani, IIT-Roorkee, Prof DC Singhal and Ashutosh Aggarwal delivered lectures. Dr SK Bartariya from the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology gave an informative presentation on the hydrological framework of Uttarakhand. On the final day of the workshop tomorrow, lectures from representatives from various government and non-government organisations and educational institutions will be delivered. Scientists GD Barthwal, D Jamloki, KP Dongre, Ravikalyan Bussa, D Bagchi, Prahlad Ram and Pushpraj Singh were other officials present on the occasion. Under the Ministry of Water Resources, the regional office of the board here carries out investigations related to ground water and from time to time holds workshops and mass awareness programmes on surface and ground water.
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Dolphin staff, students donate blood
Dehradun, March 19 The first to donate was president and MD of the Dolphin Institute, Arvind Gupta. He said: “Despite several advancements in science, so far there is no alternative to blood”. Vineeta Srivastav, adviser, State AIDS Control Society, said all donors would be provided donor cards and blood reports. The students would be provided free health services. Dean Rakesh Kumar said in the future too the Dolphin Welfare Society would hold similar camps. Principal Shailja Pant, vice-principal Arun Kumar and others attended the camp. |
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Zila panchayats seek more powers
Dehradun, March 19 Chairing the meeting, Madhu Chauhan, president of Dehradun Zila Panchayat, said the elected representatives would come together under one platform as the government and bureaucrats were hellbent on curbing their powers. She said the government needed to create zila panchayat development fund on the lines of Panchayat Area Development Fund. Chauhan said there was no representation of zila panchayat chiefs in district planning committees and as such had no say in planning. SS Chauhan said the statewas yet to get its own Panchayat Raj Act despite eight years since its creation.
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Liquor seized
Dehradun, March 19 Meanwhile, Subodh Kumar, a native of Lansdown in Pauri district, was arrested, but his accomplice Bhim Bahadur managed to escape. Cases under various Acts have been registered against the guilty. |
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Dehradun, March 19
Haridwar, March 19
Dehradun, March 19
Dehradun, March 19
