Dehradun, March 16
The announcement of the name of former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari as vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the new team declared by party chief Nitin Gadkari has come as a surprise to state party leaders and a big political jolt to a former Chief Minister, Major-Gen BC Khanduri (retd).

Koshiyari, a former Chief Minister who orchestrated the campaign to oust General Khanduri as Chief Minister in June last year, has again been able to keep him at bay. Interestingly, it was believed in the state party circles that General Khanduri, who was unceremoniously removed as Chief Minister by then party Chief Rajatah Singh following a well-orchestrated campaign led by Koshiyari, would be accommodated as vice-president in the party. There were reports in the vernacular media about General Khanduri likely to be inducted in the team of Gadkari.

However, the announcement of Koshiyari as the only name from Uttarakhand as vice-president has come a big political shock for General Khanduri. The choice of General Khanduri as Chief Minister following the victory of the BJP in the Assembly elections held in February, 2007, by party high command has not gone down well with Koshiyari. He was upset and he spearheaded a campaign against Khanduri with the help of disgruntled party legislators who were annoyed with the no-nonsense approach of the former army general. In August, 2008, Koshiyari took 
more than 20 party legislators to party high command complaining against the style of functioning of General Khanduri.

In a bid to defuse the crisis, senior party leaders backed Koshiyari, who was a legislator from Kapkot in Bageshwar district of Kumaon, for a seat in the Rajya Sabha. But it did not stop Koshiyari, a senior RSS parcharak, who, with the help of Rajnath Singh, managed to oust Khanduri following a humiliating defeat of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in the state. The BJP lost all five Lok Sabha seats and Koshiyari convinced the party leadership that it was only because of General Khanduri, who finally had to step down.

Since then, a powerful section of senior party leaders felt that General Khanduri has been wronged. It was believed that General Khanduri, who is a senior party leader and had been the Union Surface Transport Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, would be accommodated as vice-president in the organisation. General Khanduri, a nephew of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, is a Brahmin and being a former Army General commands respect and support among a large number of ex-servicemen that form a sizable part of state population. Party insiders believe that Koshiyari’s induction instead of General Khanduri indicate that the RSS has a big role to play in the constitution of the new team of party president Nitin Gadkari.

Dehradun, March 16
The working committee of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) passed the revised budget of the year 2009-10 after seeking an explanation from the Mayor and other officials on many contentious issues, which led to the commotion. The budget, which was to be presented in September, was delayed and passed today.

It was informed that the DMC earned a revenue of Rs 4,30,000 by getting grants from various sources such as JNNRUM (Rs 11,55,00,000), 12th Finance Commission (Rs 12,44,00,000), Corporation fund (Rs 15,13,00,000). In totality, the Mayor said the revenue of the DMC had risen from Rs 98 crore to Rs 104 crore up to February. Contrary to it, the corporation failed to achieve even half of the target of Rs 97,95,000 from its main sources of income such as revenue from licences, challans, road cutting, rents/taxes on land and commercial sectors by February end.

After the budget was passed, the Mayor announced the release of a Central fund of Rs 60 lakh to prepare the master plan to upgrade slum colonies in the city. He also announced that the new budget for year 2010-11 was also being prepared and a meeting to discuss it would be called by next month.

Councillor Dr Vijender Pal Singh pulled up the Health Department for not maintaining the shelter home for stray animals at Inderpur. Dr Gurpal, Health Officer, tried to wash his hands off from the arrangement of providing fodder for animals, but had to chew his words by acknowledging that hitherto the DMC had been arranging fodder for animals. The Mayor said with the help of land section, he would maintain the premises, which were in a bad state.

The issue of stray dogs too drew significant time as the exercise undertaken by the PFA to sterilise dogs has not served the purpose to prevent them from biting passers-by. The Mayor said he was trying to rope in the example of Himachal Pardesh to strike a tie-up with NGOs, Animal Husbandry and MC to sterilise more and more stray dogs. But it would certainly not rid the city of the problem of dog biting.

Councillor Ganesh Dandwal cornered the Mayor for showing less income of Rs 11,830 earned from food outlets till September in comparison to the income made in the previous budget, whereas the number of such outlets had significantly grown over the time. Then the negligence of the food inspector came to light in failing to register a new series of outlets and earning a revenue from these.

Dr Gurpal defending his position said one sanitary officer and one food inspector could not manage the overloading of work singlehandedly. “There should have been three health officers, but I am the only one who is taking care of everything under me,” he said.

Dandwal asked the food inspector to charge challans from erring owners of food corners.

The councillors also pulled up the DMC for not keeping an account of the pole lights and other small electricity equipment, which became defunct after use. These could give a revenue of lakhs by selling them in the scrap market. 

Dehradun, March 16
While Gujjars could be on their way out from Rajaji National Park, park authorities have a new challenge at hand this summer.

The needs of migrant labourers in SIDCUL have brought down the water level at Rawalee old well at the park that caters to needs of wildlife.

Once in the thick of wildlife activities, Rawalee today is under pressure due to the high presence of migrant labourers in the region that are working with various industries in SIDCUL. Their growing number brings them in direct conflict with Rajaji’s forest and water wealth.

The labourers are directly dependent on Rajaji for fulfilling their needs for fuel, fodder and water.

“The water level in Rawalee well has fallen by 1.62 m and that is quite significant. This could affect water availability in parts of Rajaji during summer,” said Paramjit Singh, Director, Rajaji National Park. This has been due to increasing dependency of labourers working in nearby SIDCUL on the Rawalee well.

While admitting to the importance of SIDCUL for industrial development, Paramjit Singh said while they were not opposed to SIDCUL and he always looked to such industrial hubs for greater role in forest and wildlife conservation efforts.

Credited with bringing in social corporate responsibility into the Nanda Devi Biosphere for conservation of musk deer, Paramjit Singh, through his individual efforts, roped in oil giant ONGC for a four-year project towards plantation of ringal in the Nanda Devi biosphere region in Chamoli district.

The project has not only helped in increasing the livelihood opportunities for the locals, but also improved the habitat of the endangered musk deer which is the state animal.

But this has been the exception where corporates have come forward for wildlife conservation.

“The corporate world does want 
to come forward for forest and wildlife initiatives. So we need to strengthen our outreach programme,” 
said Paramjit.

There have been some initiatives on the part of SIDCUL at an initial stage towards spending an environment impact assessment-linked amount in the Haridwar forest division for making check dams a little earlier.

Rajaji Park authorities have earmarked the construction of as many as 200 water holes by March 31 to ensure the availability of water to wildlife.

These water holes will be evenly spread across the park and will be constructed on a war footing as summers are already in and the peak time of the season is round the corner.

Water scarcity continues to be big threat to Rajaji wildlife as the park’s flagship species -elephant - have been forced to move into settlements to fulfil their high-volume water requirements and this often has brought them into direct conflict with humans.

Dehradun, March 16
In collaboration with the Uttarakhand State AIDS Control Society and the National Service Scheme, the Dolphin Institute of Bio-Medical and Natural Sciences and the Red Ribbon Club organised an awareness programme on AIDS/HIV. In the week-long programme, students of the club participated with fervour.

The inaugural ceremony began with the lighting of the lamp by Arvind Gupta, president of the Dolphin institute.

Addressing the gathering, he laid emphasis on the importance of awareness programmes to educate people about the ill-effects of AIDS and how to prevent it from spreading.

At consecutive day-long sessions on March 12, 13 and 14, 20 students participated in educational programmes. In this programme, Dr Shailja Pant, Dr RK Srivastava, Dr Gyanendra Awasthi, Dr Santosh Kumar and Dr Ashwani Sanghi expressed their views on the technical and social aspects of AIDS. On March 12, students even organised a quiz and poster presentations. Seven teams of different departments participated in the quiz.

In four technical rounds of the quiz, the pair of Bhuvneshwar Saraswat and Ajay Sharma, both from pharma chemistry, got the first position, Vitesh Kumar and Farha Ramzan, from microbiology, stood second and Saroj Kumar and Shishir Sapkota, from medical lab technology, secured the third position. Bindu Bhatia and Vidhi Serohi jointly managed the various phases of the quiz.

Out of 16 poster presentations, Rana Mukherjee, MSc (Microbiology III year) got the first position, Kumud and Hemlata of BSc (MLT II year) got the second position and Kshi Raj and Gurya Prakash of BSc (MLT) secured the third position. Pradeep and Abdul got the first consolation prize while Punit and Rahul of MSc (Biochemistry) were given the second consolation prize.

In the debate on eradication of AIDS menace, students questioned government strategies to check the spread of the disease. Chunmun got the first position, Prachi Srivastava (BSc) second and and Juli and Pratibha Singh of MSc (Biotechnology) got the third position. Continuing with the spirit of the programme, students of BSc presented a nukkar play titled “Jindagi Jindabad”.

However, on the occasion, all winners were presented with certificates and prizes. The programme concluded with Arvind Gupta, president of the institute, congratulating the winners and thanking the college team for successfully organising the programme.

Dr Shailja Pant, Principal of the institute, said AIDS was a social evil and cooperation at all levels could gradually help it to get eradicated. Dr Gyanendra Awasthi, convener of programme, thanked to all who extended their full cooperation to make this programme a grand success. Dr RK Srivastava, Dr TS Mehra, Dr P Tatra, Dr Santosh Kumar, Dr Ashwani Sanghi, Aditya Swaroop, Suman Rawat, Ankita Sharma, Vijay Ratna Panwar were also present at the programme.

Dehradun, March 16
“Mumkin Hai”, an NGO working against domestic violence on women, held a daylong camp at Hotel Surbhi here today. The camp was based on curbing violence against women. The event was a coalition of informative presentation of a documentary, street play and felicitation of dignitaries as well as volunteers from different districts of the state.

Geeta Gairola, president of the state Mahila Samakhya, was the chief guest of the ceremony. She said it was very disappointing to see such condition of women. The census of 2001 stated that 3.5 crore women were missing from the total population, which was rapidly increasing. The main reason was domestic violence, which women from every walk of life faced.

“Today, every woman is playing a major role in offices, home as well as in space, but the situation in some rural places remains the same. We need to spread awareness among people and persuade them to give liberty to women to flourish in society,” she added.

The organisation aims at eradicating all evils that are ruining the existence of women such as gender discrimination, early marriages, sexual assault, domestic violence and others. The association members gathered to inform people about the projects of the organisation and influence them to join with its noble cause.

Shushila Baluni, president of state Mahila Ayog, Madhu Chauhan, chairman, Zila Panchayat, and Yashoda Dobhal, an active volunteer of the Uttarakhand campaign, were among the eminent guests who marked their presence at the ceremony.