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SC communities still oppressed lot in hills
Tibdi residents launch stir to get health centre reopened
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The poor seeking homes step up stir
Women attend to fellow protesters who fainted at the agitation spot in Haridwar on Monday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur
Scorching heat pushes tourists to Ganga ghats
96 students take part in painting contest at Raj Bhawan
Governor Margaret Alva looks at participants of a painting contest at the Nainital Raj Bhawan on Monday.
Participants at a three-day workshop on the VLSI design organised by ICFAI University in Dehradun on Monday.
Academy for IAS coaching opens centre
in Doon}
Nainital, 40th PAC Unit, 46th PAC, 31st PAC Battalion win
Education Dept win soccer tourney with highest points
The Education Department team pose with trophies after clinching the Institutional League Football Tournament in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photohraph
Gypsy Club, 2/3rd Gorkha Rifle score victories
Players vie for the ball at the Narendra Singh Kharola Memorial Football Tournament in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photograph
St Ann’s Cricket Academy lift title
St Ann’s Cricket Academy, Lucknow, team receive the trophy after winning the All-India DSL Alovera T20 Cricket Tournament in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photograph
U’khand volleyball association to come into existence by June-end
Ramavatar Singh, Joint Secretary of the Indian Volleyball Federation (extreme right) addresses a press conference in Dehradun on Monday. A Tribune photograph
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SC communities still oppressed lot in hills
Dehradun, May 24 Be it the sanskar ceremony, the opening of temple portals in Uttarakhand or social movements, drum beaters or aujis are summoned without fail to perform customary rituals. It is aujis who have kept alive the culture of musical instruments for centuries and it is their hands that have chiselled many statutes of gods and goddesses that adorn temples in hills. Ironically, they are denied entry in several temples in Uttarakhand and have to travel several kilometres to quench their thirst. Surely, the government cannot wish away the issue especially when members of these communities have started raising their voice and are busy giving shape to a movement. On the last day of a workshop organised today by the Samata Andolan of Uttarakhand, social, economic and cultural discrimination that the members were facing daily were discussed. “The successive governments have tried to hush up the Hanol temple incident that took place twice under two different governments. Last year, a girl belonging to the Scheduled Castes community in Jaunsar Babhar was beaten up, her clothes torn because she had entered Mahasu Devta’s temple in Hanol,” said Prem Pancholi, an activist of the Samta Andolan. He criticised the administrations allegedly for its efforts to hush up the case. Pointing out that the same attitude of discrimination has even pervaded the mid-day meal system. Upper caste Bhojan Matas are not wiling to serve meals to the children belonging to the SC communities. “In Uttarkashi and Chamoli, the Bhojan Matas of the SC communities are deliberately given the menial task of washing utensils,” said Pancholi. If the government was slow in coming to the aid of the SC communities, the tardy allocation of funds too was not helping matters. The participants pointed out that the development activities in SC-dominated areas under the component plan had come to a standstill as there were no fund allocations, especially in Chamoli district. The participants said the condition was worse in Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts, where sewerage lines and water schemes bypass the SC-dominant villages. “Try as much we can but the fact cannot be denied that the upper caste communities in Uttarakhand still cringe at the thought of sharing food with the members of the SC communities. It is the mindset and deep-rooted beliefs that guide our actions. Though many of us may even eat and live together at a social gathering but once back to our villages the oppressive caste practises come into play,” said Geeta Gairola, Project Director, Mahila Samakhya, Uttarakhand. In a scathing criticism of upper caste members’ tendency to deny the artisans, artistes and musicians their due, Jitender, activist of Lok Jagriti Sansthan, said in the songs aujis were never given credit. “Strangely the aujis and temple singers belonging to the SC communities are never eulogised. Credit should be given to them for preserving the songs that were passed on to them by their fathers and forefathers,” said Jitender. Suresh Bhai and his organisation, Raksha Sutar, presented a study pointing out the discrimination that the administration was practising while rehabilitating the members of the SC communities, especially in areas where dams are being built. He citied the examples of the Vishnu Prayag Hydro Power project and the Tehri Dam project.
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Tibdi residents launch stir to get health centre reopened
Haridwar, May 24 Despite repeated reminders to the state Health Department and apprising the local legislator of the problem the residents have been facing for quite some time, yet no action has been taken. They have also written to state Health Minister Balwant Singh Bhauriyal about the closed health centre and demanded opening it once again. Perturbed after several failed attempts, the anger of people came on streets and they staged an agitation at the defunct health centre. Raising slogans against the apathy of the state government for neglecting the demand of the Tibdi residents, the agitators demanded the instant opening of the centre otherwise they would have to resort to stern measures as they had to go several kilometres for medical purposes in the absence of any medical centre itself in the area. Leading the residents JP Pandey even warned of boycotting of future elections by the colony residents if their demand was not met. “We have several times apprised the authorities concerned of the problems that arise due to not having a medical centre but there seems to be no effect”. He further added that when it came to election time, politicians gave them time-bound assurances, but after winning, no one paid heed which was quite unfortunate. The Youth Congress has also lent its support to the re-opening of the health centre. The Youth Congress has sent a memorandum to the Health Minister demanding the opening of the said centre which used to be lifeline of the Tibdi residents. District general secretary of the Youth Congress Rajendra Jatav pointed out that they would wait for the reply of the minister for a couple of days and if no reply came, future course of action would be taken. Jatav even warned that future elections would be boycotted if their demand was not met soon. “What’s the use of
having councillors and legislators if they have no concern for us. We brought them to power and we have the same power to dethrone
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The poor seeking homes step up stir
Haridwar, May 24 Following the incident, hundreds of women from the lower strata of society gathered at the venue and raised slogans against the municipality and the state government for neglecting their legitimate demand. The agitation is being held under the aegis of the Hind Rashtriya Awami Hukook Party. Two women protesters, namely Sharda Devi Verma and Vidhya Devi Kashyap, who were on the fast, fainted mid noon. Though protesters alleged that they had informed the health authorities, no one came to take stock of the situation. The protesters also warned that if anything happened to the agitators holding the fast it would be the sole responsibility of the administration. Murslein Quereshi, chief of the Hind Rashtriya Awami Hukook Party, has lashed at the district administration for not paying attention to their demands and termed it a pressure from local legislator Madan Kaushik of not sending medical team to examine the agitators holding the fast. “Representatives of the district administration, municipality and the state government are ignoring our woes and they have still not sent a medical team at the agitation spot. This is all going due to pressure from the legislator who during elections had assured us of provision of homes but now he has been backtracking on his promised since he has become a cabinet minister,” said Qureshi. This was the third day of fast and the sixth day of the agitation. Considering the scorching heat this was bound to happen, but still late in the evening no medical doctor had arrived. The protesters burnt an effigy of the city health officer. Later, both women protesters, who had fainted at the venue, recovered from the illness and carried on with their agitation. They said they would carry on with their agitation till they got justice. A memorandum has been sent to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank through Magistrate Archana Grehawar by the agitators. Meanwhile, certain councillors came in support of the agitation. Ashok Sharma, a councillor, lashed out at the BJP-led government for not catering to the lower strata of society and being a pro-rich party. He said the BJP had only used this section of society as a vote bank and now it would face the repercussions in the coming 2012 Assembly elections.
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Scorching heat pushes tourists to Ganga ghats
Haridwar, May 24 Though post-Maha Kumbh that concluded on April 28, there has been a marked dip in the flow of people, still with the religious, mythological affinity that the pious Braham Kund, Har-ki-Pauri, is associated with it round the year, there is always a flow of pilgrim-tourists at the place. Even on normal days the number of people taking a holy dip and coming for rituals at Har-ki-Pauri touch thousands and the place is always brimming with a flurry of activities. Add to it is the serenity and picturesque location with the holy Ganga flowing betwixt the mountain terrain on both sides and the plain area starting from Har-ki-Pauri itself. These days, apart from pilgrims and tourists, a large number of localites are seen taking bath at the Har-ki-Pauri and adjacent ghats not only for the religious purpose, but also for the sake of getting relief from the simmering hot conditions. And not to left behind is the fun factor for the younger generation. Locals are seen particularly late in the evening and they unwind themselves till late night with taking dinner at nearest famous food outlets. While the tourist inflow is coming majorly from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, specifically from the Chandigarh belt, apart from all the regions of the country. Traders are a happy lot these days with their shops being thronged from early morning till late night. Notably, during the Kumbh festive bathes roads were blocked and movement was restricted in Har-Ki-Pauri core mela zone which had adverse impact on the traders but now they seemed to be a happy lot making for the loss these days. Specially Moti Bazaar, Upper Road and other adjacent markets falling in and near Har-Ki-Pauri are brimming with customers. Not only these markets, but the other city markets too are feeling the positive effect with pilgrims, tourists residing in hotels, dharmshalas, rest houses across the city region. “We are getting all types of customers and accordingly varied are their demands. Pilgrims have different buying mindset, tourists’ shop in a fun mode while locals stress on quality and price aspect and we present them accordingly. Busy hours have extended till late night and for traders busy means money,” remarked Ajay Sharma, a garment shop owner at Upper Bazaar. While corporate and students’ groups are also visible in large numbers and after visiting temples they are seen enjoying the dip in the Ganga ghats. Their bathing is quite different from traditional devotees style with splashing of water at each other, shouting making noises and specially dipping those who either fear of water or don’t know how to swim. Foreigners, too, are seen enjoying the atmosphere in the Haridwar ghats and are mostly busy in clicking pictures of the area and people.
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96 students take part in painting contest at Raj Bhawan
Nainital, May 24 “The competition has been organised to make the children and common people aware of the natural beauty and environment of Nainital,” said Alva. The paintings will be put up for the common people on Tuesday between 11 am and 1 pm. An exhibition of works by 10 artistes showing Nainital of 1880 was also put up. The artistes, whose works were on display, are Anup Sah, NN Singh, Naveen Joshi, Vinita Yashasvi, Ahad Tanvir, Mohan Bisht, Sardar Balbir Singh, Pradip Pande, KS Sajwan and Lokesh Pande.
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Workshop on VLSI design ends
Dehradun, May 24 In all, more than 50 participants attended the workshop representing various universities, organisations and institutes of Dehradun, including faculties and students of ICFAI. The objective of the seminar was to make participants understand vividly the concepts and intricacies of the professional VLSI design and to realise its potential in the present day context of electronics and communication scenario. Scientists from Pilani Dr Raj Singh and Dr SC Bose have been successful in achieving this goal in the letter and the spirit. In addition, the participants were also exposed to Xilinx platform ISE 10.1 by the experts of CoreEL Technology through continuous practical demonstration. Most of the participants appreciated this workshop and requested the ICFAI authorities to arrange similar workshops on similarly placed technologies in future also.
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Academy for IAS coaching opens centre
in Doon}
Dehradun, May 24 “Kautilya Academy is the first of its kind in the city, apart from other regular coaching and tuition centres, that provides better education to all those candidates who are preparing for IAS, PCS, Bank (clerk/PO), SSC BEd/BTC, Railway, CAT/MAT/NET, Police, SI and VDO. By now, I’ve received four enrolments and hope to get more for every course. The academy will also provide free counselling sessions to the aspiring candidates too,” said, Ravi Kumar Verma, owner and teacher of Kautilya IAS Academy.
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Nainital, 40th PAC Unit, 46th PAC, 31st PAC Battalion win
Haridwar, May 24 Seventeen teams from all over the state partake in the championship with 11 from PAC while five from IRB and one under-training team comprising the list. Basketball, volleyball, handball and kabaddi were the part of the championship. A total of 463 players participated in the event. In the volleyball final match, Nainital district police team much to the chagrin of home crowd won an intense match winning three sets to Hariwar’s two. While in the basketball final smiles were brought to the face of the spectators with 40th PAC Uit team winning a tightly fought match leading with three points with the score line reading 61-58. In the handball final again Haridwar had to contend with the first runners up spot with 46th PAC winning easily 38-25 margin clinching the title which is quite a new game for the state. Whereas in the fourth and final event of kabaddi 31st PAC Battalion won against the 40th PAC Battalion by 47-33 points. The chief guest of the event Inspector General of Police (Garhwal range) MA Ganapathy gave away the trophies and medals to the players. Addressing the concluding ceremony, IG Ganapathy pointed out the need of sufficient number of coaches and coaching camps for the state police players. He cited examples of states such as Maharashtra and Kerala wherein sufficient number of coaches was provided for the state police which enhances their performance at national-level tournaments. “But considering limited resources and being a new and a hilly state our state police sports persons have been performing excellent,” stated the IG. Organising Committee Secretary and Commandant 40th PAC IPS Ajay Rautella said the event was successful and the players performed well and played fair. Ajay Rautella who was ranked SSP for Maha Kumbh gave the chief guest memorabilia related with the event.
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Education Dept win soccer tourney with highest points
Dehradun, May 24 The Education Department won all its four league matches during the tournament and scored 12 points in total. However, the Secretariat stood second with seven points. Sushil Rawat of the winning team was the highest scorer of the competition. Meanwhile, in today’s league match the OFD and the OLF played a 1-1 draw. Vijay Thapa of the OFD scored in the 53rd minute and DS Rautela netted a goal in the 55th minute.
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Gypsy Club, 2/3rd Gorkha Rifle score victories
Dehradun, May 24 Both sides played a 1-1 draw in the stipulated time. Rahul scored for Yanky and Amit Payal for Gypsy. The match was later decided through tiebreaker. In this round, Rahul, Vikram and Deepak found the target while Prashant and Manoj missed the target for Yanky. Mahender, Sunil, Yol and Yogesh scored for Gypsy but Kiran missed the target. Meanwhile, in the second match, 2/3rd Gorkha Rifle outplayed Cantt Blue 4-1. Manoj (15th ), Prem Thapa (20th), Mok Bahadur (27th) and Manish (37th) each scored a goal for the winning team. Amit Gurung (14th minute) netted a solidarity goal for Cantt Blue.
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St Ann’s Cricket Academy lift title
Dehradun, May 24 It was skipper Nitin Yadav (74 off 45) of the winning team, who played a knock of a captain to lead his side to set a big target of 176 runs for four wickets in stipulated 20 overs. Vineet Singh (39 of 33) and Santosh Roshan (21 off 18) also contributed for the team. For the bowling side, Vaibhav Panwar took two wickets, Girish Rathuri and Samadh Khan pocketed a wicket each. The bowlers of the host team proved costly today. Batting second, the UCA’s batsmen started off well but they couldn’t convert their individual scores to big numbers and that hit the side badly. Keshav Negi (20), Sameer Sharma (18) and Gaurav K Singh (22) showed some signs of sailing their team home, but couldn’t carry forward the momentum and lost their wickets. The team lost all its wickets in 18.2 overs for 145 runs. While for St Ann’s Vinit Singh was the most successful bowler, he caught three wickets in four overs for 30 runs. Jai Prakash got two wickets, Santosh Roshan, Sharion and M Rehman took a wicket each. Meanwhile, during the prize distribution ceremony, Vinit Singh was adjudged the best batsman and Vikas Singh the best bowler of the tournament. The winning and the runners up teams were given away prizes.
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U’khand volleyball association to come into existence by June-end
Dehradun, May 24 The elections of office-bearers of the association are likely to be over by the end of June and that will bring the association into existence once again. Joint secretary of the IVF Ramavtar Singh said, “The two disputed parties of the association have decided to resolve the issue with mutual understanding and the association will come into existence by the end of June”. It may be recalled that the UVA was disaffiliated by the IVF in November last year following the dispute between association’s former president Avedesh Chaudhari and former general secretary DK Singh. The rift had brewed in 2002 while the association was formed in 2000. The matter was in the court and the case had got over after both the parties decided to sort out the issue with mutual understanding and then the IVF also decided to conduct elections and affiliate the association. The joint secretary while addressing the media today said not only Uttarakhand volleyball but also the country suffered a loss since the state has the history of producing international volleyball players. “In the Indian team, six to seven players are from Uttarakhand state only and the credit also goes to the ONGC which has given several international players. The state has been among the first fours for last consecutive five to six years. The state bagged the silver medal last year in nationals while it clinched the gold in 2002,” the IVF joint secretary added. However, despite such good performance, the players of the state and the sport suffered a big setback since no state-level tournaments were held for last three years owing to the dispute in the association. Though both junior and senior teams were being sent for nationals from the state every year but it was only on the basis of a trials. After disaffiliating the UVA last year, the IVF had formed a five-member committee for selecting the state teams that participate at the national competitions. Arun Sood, international volleyball player, who was appointed as the chairman of the committee speaking to The Tribune said, “Only selections of the players for nationals were held on the basis of trials while there were no state level games for last several years. This wasn’t an effective way to select players. But after the formation of the association again it will be good for the future of the volleyball players.
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Defunct health centre at Tibdi and (right) residents hold a protest on Monday. Tribune photographs
An agitation on the Haridwar Municipal Committee premises being held by the poor seeking homes under various government-run housing schemes gained momentum when two of the women agitators, who are on a fast, fainted at the venue of the agitation.
A painting competition for schoolchildren was held at the Raj Bhawan here today. As many as 96 students from various schools in Nainital participated in the event organised on the
directions of Governor Margaret Alva. The students between Class V to VIII were asked to paint on the topic “Flowers and garden”, while students of Class IX to XII were given the topics “Nainital in my view and environment. 
Claiming the highest points, the Education Department won the Institutional League football tournament held on Pavilion Ground.
In an tough encounter, the Gypsy Club beat the Yanky Club 5-4 in the tiebreaker during the Narendra Singh Kharola Memorial Football Tournament at Ambedkar Stadium on the Kaulgarh Road ONGC here today.
Dehradun, May 24
Dehradun, May 24
