Dehradun, April 3
With the commencement of the new academic session, parents are overburdened with the fee hike in public schools in the city. Parents of two and three children are suffering the most. Where schools have done 20 per cent to 30 per cent of fee hikes, parents are worried to manage the expenses of their studies along with other household expenditures.

In order to discuss the tear pelting issue of several parents in the city, Shekhar Mamgai, president of the Parents Federation, held a press conference at the Hindi Bhawan here today.

Addressing the conference, he expressed resentment for the public schools that were increasing the fee structure according to their own whims and fancies.

The federation has put allegations on such public schools that have derived a new way of making profit out of it. The federation has also put forth the collected data of the fee hike in public schools.

Other than the fee hike, the issue of compelling parents to purchase books, stationery and uniforms from a particular shop was also discussed. Mamgai said the federation would raise its voice against such malpractices in the city, for which they had planned to give a memorandum to the state Education Minister as well as to the Education Director. The federation was also planning to come up with their website to provide online service to the affected parents.

“Through this online service, we will invite more and more parents to join hands with us and would create awareness among the inhibited parents who fear to come in public,” said Mamgai.

Dr D Kumar, general secretary of the federation, said they had asked the Education Department to deal with the complaints of the parents, but the educational institution was doing no good as far as now.

Dehradun, April 3
The state unit of the Samajwadi Party has criticised the decision of the Centre of suspending hydel projects in Uttarakhand on environmental grounds.

The party believes that the Centre was giving step-motherly treatment to Uttarakhand. The Centre should have been taken the state government into confidence before giving its decision. Party president Vinod Barthwal stated that the suspension of Pala Maneri and Bhaironghati by the Centre was very unfortunate and this would affect the state adversely.

He also advocated that the Centre should extend the industrial package to 2020 otherwise the industries would move out of the state and the unemployment would increase in the state. He exhorted the Congress and the BJP to take other parties along with them to put pressure on the Centre to press for their demands.

He also took the opportunity to lash at the BJP and the Congress for indulging in blame game and not discussing the prime issues, including poverty, unemployment and condition of women in the hills during the session of the state legislative Assembly. 

Mussoorie, April 3
The BJP government in the state has geared up completely with the roadmap to provide safe and clean drinking water to people this summer. This was stated by Uttarakhand Peyjal Salakhar Anusharvan Samiti president Brij Bhushan Gairola in a press conference here.

Gairola, outlining the priorities set by the government to handle the drinking water crisis occurring due to the drying natural water sources, said the government this summer had come out with a clear roadmap and was committed to provide safe drinking water in urban and rural areas simultaneously. He informed that the government had categorised the sensitive zones regarding drinking water availability in the state. The repair work of hand-pumps would be completed by mid-April. Ninety per cent maintenance work of pumps and reservoirs was already complete. The district administration had been directed to provide drinking water through tankers immediately wherever the need was in sensitive blocks. The district administration had been directed mules would be deployed for villages reeling under water crisis.

Gairola further said drinking water projects had also been upgraded. He also said three agencies were working under the SWAP mode presently, Jal Nigam, Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan and Swajal, and accountability had been fixed for these agencies and strict direction had been given so that the finance reached the stake holders in a correct manner. He also said the main priority of the government was that no person should be left thirsty this summer in the state. Officials had been directed to test the drinking water routine wise. He also said schools had also been identified and provided with safe drinking water keeping the summer season in mind. He reiterated the fact that the government was fully prepared to provide safe drinking water to the state as maximum infrastructure-level development was on the verge of completion. The government for the 12 Five-Year Plan had planned to provide basic amenities to villages and places which had remained in an isolation and brought them in the map of development.

He said an increase in the storage capacity of the reservoirs would help in solving the drinking water crisis this year. Necessary directions had been given to officials for proper distribution. He said Rs 1.27 crore had already been released for the maintenance and repair of the pipelines etc. in the town.

The Hardy Fall project had also been sent to the government of India and when completed the project would be able to provide 75 per cent drinking water to Mussoorie. Gairola also said more than Rs 1,500 crore had been allocated for the development work by different funding agencies be it state, centre and World Bank and the government had made along term strategy for its utilisation at grass-root level.

Speaking on the stalling of power projects on the Ganga by centre, Gairola was of the view that the Ganga River Basin was the right authority for the decision and no objection has been received by the state govt as yet. It is important to note that fuinaaly govt has woken up to the forthcoming drinking water crisis, whether government remains committed to its claims remains to be seen.

Dehradun, April 3
Almost on the lines of the Jaipur Literary Festival, Doon Readings Mountain Echoes from the Himalayas got underway in Dehradun today attracting eminent writers and poets from the four corners of the country.

On the occasion, a book of poems in Hindi by Viky Arya titled “Banjarey Khwaab” and Vishvjit’s book of poems titled “Kuch Shabad Kuch Lakirin”, published by Yatra were released by eminent writer Dr Haridatt Bhatt Shailesh. “Flowers and Elephants by Constance Sitwell” published by Natraj Publishers was also launched today.

While reading from the book, Dr BK Joshi, an eminent academician, said the concept of eastern and western viewpoint as envisaged by EM Forester came out vividly in the book.

A special section was dedicated to readings by Uttarakhand poets Girda, Atul Sharma, Narender Negi and Jagdish Joshi.

Earlier, a conversation among Omprakash Valmiki, a leading Hindi writer, Namita Gokhale, a famous author and publisher, and SS Nirupam on “the winds of change” explored the many facets of the Dalit writing and how the writers comprising both men and women were using pen to vent their feelings.

In the same vein, but in different context, in search of Sita by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal raised searing questions about Sita, who evokes mixed reactions among both men and women.

While the last section was devoted to the launch of Penguin-Yatra Music books series.

In the evening, a ballet choreographed on myths of the Gang was presented by Tom Alter and Sharmila Bhartari.

Dehradun, April 3
On the occasion of 69th birth anniversary of Asa Ram Bapu, members of the Shri Yog Vedant Sewa Samiti took out a mass procession, shobha yatra, here today.

The procession began from Shivaji Dharamshala to Saharanpur Chowk to Lakhi Bagh to Dispensary Road to Panchayati Mandir to Clock Tower to Paltan Bazar and finally culminated at Shivaji Dharmshala.

The samiti will organise rituals, rites and bhandara tomorrow, along with cultural programmes that will be presented by Bal Sanskar Prabhag.

Nainital, April 3
Two students of the prestigious Sherwood College were killed in an accident near Ramnagar on today afternoon.

Twentyfive others were injured out of whom three are said to be in a serious condition. Those sustaining serious injuries have been referred to Haldwani for treatment, while the remaining 22 are being given medical aid in the government hospital in Ramnagar.

The deceased have been identified as Ibrahim Ansari of Kanpur and Anmol Bhatt of Haldwani. Both of them were 13 years old and studying in Class VII.

The incident took place around noon when a tractor trolley carrying the children in the Sitabani Forest area overturned.

According to Principal of the school Amandeep Sandhu, the children had gone to the area for their trek. They were staying at a resort in Amgadh.

Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Ramnagar, AK Nautiyal told The Tribune that the top brass of the administration had rushed to the spot on learning about the incident and was supervising the relief and rescue operations.

“The best possible assistance is being provided to the children who are in a state of shock,” he said.

Sandhu also rushed to the spot on coming to know about the accident.

The post mortem of the deceased is being done at Haldwani. A case has been registered at the Kaladhungi police station.

Dehradun, April 3
Dismissing the dismal interpretation of recently released CAG report about BSNL’s poor performance in Uttarakhand by expressing ignorance, BSNL Chairman and Chief Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal presented a rosy picture of the speedy expansion of the BSNL in each nook and corner of the state. He said the BSNL had registered a growth of 60 per cent in disbursing mobile connection this year by having reached to 1.6 million people in comparison to one million of last year.

Seeing the mobile competition turning fierce, he said tariff had become less over the year.

Taking pride in being the only player in the market for offering 3G services, Goyal said, “We had started 3G services in 377 cities and covered one million connections in the state, where the customers got exclusivity of video calling facilities, mobile TV, multi-player gamers, music and video download”.

He also talked of covering rural sector claiming that the BSNL had reached 1,000 blocks out of total 6,000 blocks.

Discussing IPTV on broadband connection, he said 235 connections had been provided to Dehradun city. “You can access facilities like voice recording, high-speed internet, watch cable channels and video recording. Since it is digitised, so quality level is good,” he said.

Goyal informed that a call centre for UP and the Dehradun region had been set up here.

Enumerating the department’s priorities for the next year, he said the BSNL would target increase in broadband connections by taking it from 25 lakh this year to 75 lakh and covering 20 million by year 2012. He acknowledged that the BSNL had hogged 60 per cent share of the whole market in broadband connections. For mobile connection, he said with the help of the MTNL, he wanted to take the figure to 8.5 million. For 3G connection, he aspired to touch 3 million and for 2G 20 million more connections by the next year.

To spread its reach to the rural region, he said he had already covered villages with 5,000 population. In the current year he would target villages with 2,000 population and by next year villages with 1,000 population. He also accepted the suggestion of taking even those hilly villages in its ambit which had lesser population because of their geographical layout.

Out of total 458 telephone exchanges, 250 would be in the rural sector. Goyal also informed about 1,160 digitised telephone working in the rural sector and refused to buy the point that many of them were doing bad.

Passing the buck to poor power supply or digging of the road for the abrupt snapping of telephone lines or lease lines, he promised to look into specific cases, where the problems persisted for longer and frequent durations.

He also assured of glossing over the lacunae found in wireless connections in CDMA technology.

Braving a volley of questions on faltering performance of the BSNL on its hyped projects of providing bulk SMS services or computers to poor, he said, “We provided 4,500 subsidy on computers in the rural sector. It was franchised companies which had their commercial limitation that affected the projects”.

Defending the IPTV, which is also said to be charging higher at par with other companies, he said, “Contract for the IPTV is quite costly. It has to be comparative, but can’t be higher than DTH. Keeping its features in consideration, it can not be expected to be cheaper”.

Regarding the disinvestments plan of the BSNL getting into thick controversy, he said as per the Pitroda Committee Recommendations, the disinvestments had been suggested to be 30 er cent instead of 10 per cent in step-wise manner at the right time and the decision to do it as per favourable market condition, would ultimately be taken by the Central government. For this, 250 companies had already shown interest for disinvestments. 

Dehradun, April 3
Auditions of Pahal 2010, a talent-hunt show, began today at Naach Dance Academy near the Yak Petrol pump. SR Consultancy had organised the event for providing platform to upcoming models and dancers. The event is a fund-raising programme to provide a helping hand to those suffering from AIDS.

The main motive of the event is to spread awareness among people about AIDS and help those who are afflicted with HIV.

Around 70 to 80 candidates came for the auditions. The next round of the audition will be on April 21. The winners of the talent-hunt show will be featured in the music album “Tera Pyaar” that will be launched by SR Consultancy. 

Dehradun, April 3
The Assam Rifles Ex-Servicemen Association held Shaheed Samman Samaroh today at Rangers College, where many people had gathered to attend the homage ceremony. Relatives of the martyrs of the Assam Rifles were present to receive the honour.

Sher Singh Gadiya, Shaurya Chakra awardee, Dewal, Chamoli and other awardees were also felicitated on the occasion.

Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi was the chief guest, who inaugurated the event as well as distributed sewing machines to 20 widows of the martyrs.

Joshi also expressed his gratitude to the soldiers, who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield while saving the country.

While addressing to the people, he said more and more young people should join the Army and encouraged others to offer their support to the soldiers.

Lt-Gen OP Kaushik (retd), Brig KJ Behl (retd), chairman of the Sainik Welfare Society, Col Khem Bhahadur Thapa and Brig PS Gurung were the guest of honour. 

Dehradun, April 3
DIG (ITBP) VK Dandona got superannuated on Thursday after the completion of 36 years of service in the force.

A Doonite, Dandona jointed the ITBP on December 17, 1973, as a gazetted officer. He was promoted as Deputy Commandant on June 4, 1982. Subsequently, he was made Second-in-Command on April 14, 1987, Commandant on September 14, 1989, Commandant (selection grade) on August 28, 1994, and DIG on May 1, 2006.

Dandona has earned five covetous postings in the premier institutions of the ITBP at Mussoorie and Auli.

He has been an awardee of DG’s commendations, letters and insignia and the President’s medal for distinguished services.

He also led an internationally famed skiing and mountaineering expeditions to Mount Choukhamba during 1987. He also had the privilege to lead the sixth batch of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to Tibet/China during July and August 1998.