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Birch trees to the rescue of Gangotri glacier
Hemkund Sahib devotees getting best facilities: Parishad chief |
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DMC shopping complexes stuck in quota issue
An unoccupied shopping complex built by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation is in a shambles. — A Tribune photograph
Nainital gears up for Harit Yojana
Now, on-demand exams for open schooling candidates
Haridwar auto-rickshaw owners lose profits to Rishikesh counterparts
Cantt Blue give Yankies blues, post 6-0 win
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Birch trees to the rescue of Gangotri glacier
Dehradun, July 14 “The glacier has retreated 0.25 km in the last 144 years due to changes in atmospheric temperature across the globe. We compared the photographs taken by Samuel Bourne in 1810 and could locate the landmarks and ridges that were there and how much the glacier had retreated since then. “At Dharli, of the three temples photographed by Samuel Bourne, only one - Dharli temple - was in fine shape. Probably, the high degree of siltation from the river has buried the temples,” explained Dr Bist. Back from a first of its kind repeat photography expedition undertaken to Gangotri glacier retracing the exact trek and situations as done by Samuel Bourne in 1866 so that experts could study the variation in topography over 144 years, Dr Bist and members of expedition team shared their experiences with mediapersons today. The six-member team left for the expedition on June 13 and returned on July 2. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation-sponsored expedition till Chukhamba involved photographing valuable evidence in the form of flora and fauna, high peaks and glaciers. “So much has changed since Samuel went on the trek. Only few bamaks (glaciers) are in good health. The Meru Bamak which is a tributary to the Gangotri has receded by around 1 km. We could even trace the boulders photographed 144 years ago. But the twin Gangotri and Chaturangi Bamaks which are
together
Birch trees to the rescue of Gangotri glacier since 1844 have receded by 400m,” apprised Dr Harshwanti Bist. She said that several glacial pools could be seen on Gangotri and Chaturangi Bamaks and their thickness too had reduced. “Only Kirti, Ghanohim, Swachanda and Miandi Bamaks seemed to be in good health,” Bist added. The six expedition members were Dr Harshwanti Bist (team leader), Vasumathi Srinivasan, Vice-President, Karnataka Mountaineering Association, Ratan Singh Chauhan, guide and former Chief Instructor, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (Uttarakhand), Vipul Dhasmana, journalist, Pushpa Chauhan, photographer and Anil Singh Rawat, botanist.
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Hemkund Sahib devotees getting best facilities: Parishad chief
Haridwar, July 14
Char Dham Vikas Parishad vice-president Surat Ram Nautiyal was here today to address a high-level district administrative meeting at the CCR Mela Towers. He informed the meeting about the steps being taken by the parishad regarding the yatra as well as taking stock of the preparations for the upcoming Kanwar Mela. Saying that this year the Char Dham yatra had been a huge success with a record number of pilgrims visiting the four shrines (the most number being at the Badrinath shrine), Nautiyal said the parishad was trying its bit to provide best of the facilities to the pilgrims. Till date in at Badrinath Dham of Lord Vishnu, 7,92,315 people have offered prayers followed by Lord Shiva’s shrine of Kedarnath with 3,40,001 pilgrims. While the Gangotri shrine had seen 3,22,041 pilgrims coming to offer prayers, the Yamunotri shrine drew 3,50,602 visitors. Nautiyal pointed out that the Dev Bhoomi of Uttarakhand had always been welcoming the pilgrims as per the Indian tradition of “atithi devo bhava” and the parishad was taking steps to make their journey a memorable one. After the demand of the holy shrine of Hemkund Sahib in Chamoli for the status equivalent to four Himalayan shrines, Nautiyal said the parishad was already providing best of the facilities to the Sikh pilgrims where already this year 2,01,203 devotees had paid obeisance. “From the provision of electricity and water facility to the deployment of the Jal Police, parishad is trying its level best to provide best of facilities to devotees visiting the Hemkund Sahib shrine. Regarding rising pollution on the Char Dham route, Nautiyal said from this year polythene usage had been banned on the yatra route specially at these shrines and the move had led to a marked improvement in these areas. Appreciating the role of local people in this anti-polythene drive, he said without local people’s help the anti-polythene drive can’t be successful. “We have levied penalty for the usage of cellular phones, drinking liquor and violating traffic rules while driving on the pilgrimage route to these five shrines. With the passage of time the impact will there for all to see,” he said, adding that till date the parishad had collected Rs 1.43 crore in the form of penalties from people violating the above-mentioned rules. On the upcoming Kanwar Mela, Nautiyal said steps were being taken to ensure that poor quality food items and water are not sold and there would be a separate Kanwar route as specified by the district administration. Discussions are on with respective governments of Panjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh regarding the Kanwar yatra with stricter implementation of law and order for Kanwariyas who often violate traffic laws besides indulging in various unruly acts. Notably, the Kanwar Mela is assuming higher proportions with each passing year. Last year a whopping seven million-odd Kanwariyas come to Haridwar as part of the yatra. Kanwariyas come to Har-ki-Pauri to take holy Ganga water with them and offer it at their respective temples of Lord Shiva.
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DMC shopping complexes stuck in quota issue
Dehradun, July 14 Except seven shops which had been sold in an auction two years ago, the rest are getting damaged by intruders and wear and tear of the time. No one in the DMC has the desire and time to pay attention to the built-up property. There are 15 shops on the first floor at Race Course, 17 at Malviya Nagar, 30 on the Kanwali Road and 40 on the DMC Road. Mayor Vinod Chamoli said two years ago when they held the auction, only seven shops got sold off as recession was at its peak. Thereafter, the matter got stuck on the issue of a reservation policy. “The issue of declaring reservation for SC/ST/Backward and Uttarakhand statehood agitators in the sale of shops stopped the ongoing process. No such clarification has been made till now. Unless it is done, we can’t go ahead with the auction process for the rest of the shops”. Forty shops on the DMC Road, which saw completion recently, remained unfinished for one and a half years as DMC officials did not do anything on hiring new contractor for the construction work after the tenure of the former expired. Ashok Verma, Opposition leader, said: “After the time period of one contractor came to an end, the officials did not do anything to place tenders for another contractor because of which unfinished structures continued to hang in the balance for one and a half year. “Meanwhile, the cost of construction material and labour doubled. Now, who will pay for this loss?” Verma also questioned the status of other shopping complexes built four years ago which are reducing to rubble because of the utter negligence of the DMC. “All kinds of nefarious activities are taking place in those vacant shopping complexes as unscrupulous elements have occupied them”. The windows of many shops were seen broken, the doors missing, nook and corners chipped off and walls painted dirty with beetle juice. The new built property is getting ruined but no one bothers here. Instead of earning revenue, it seems the DMC is bound to incur losses in this scheme also.
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Nainital gears up for Harit Yojana
Nainital, July 14 In Nainital, Divisional Forest Officer (Land Conservation) Amit Verma has been appointed the nodal officer for the execution of the scheme. District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli has ordered the Block Development Officers (BDOs) and other district-level officials to start interacting with representatives of various educational institutions, non-government organisations (NGOs), Van Panchayats, senior citizens, etc, and apprise them of the details of the proposed scheme and also tell them about the programmes scheduled for July 24. He has also ordered that every department and office will undertake a tree plantation exercise on the given day and has asked the officials to ensure that the event is attended by prominent personalities and public representatives. Bagauli has asked the BDOs to undertake massive tree plantation in their respective areas. He has told them that if they do not have funds for the same, the tree plantation can be undertaken under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
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Now, on-demand exams for open schooling candidates
Dehradun, July 14 Interacting with mediapersons, Manoj Kumar, Regional Director of the NIOS, said the on-demand facility was so far available only with the Noida headquarters. “The new facility will ensure that the students no more wait for six months for the next public exams or travel to Noida for the examination,” Kumar pointed out. He informed that the on-demand examination was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday at the regional centre with the registration done online at the NIOS website. “The ODES result is published on the NIOS website during IIIrd week of every month for the examinations conducted during the preceding month,” he observed. The NIOS, Dehradun centre, has an annual enrolment of about 20,000 students with the network of a total of 155 study centres.
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Haridwar auto-rickshaw owners lose profits to Rishikesh counterparts
Haridwar, July 14 This anomaly in the licence permits is causing a huge problem to commuters as well as generating resentment among the Vikram owners. As per the Transport Department, Haridwar-based three and four-wheelers are being given licences to ply till Doiwala and way before Muni-ki-Reti only, while Rishikesh-based vehicles are given licences for a 40-km trajectory which covers Har-ki-Pauri, Patanjali Yogpeeth on the Roorkee highway and till the industrial hub of SIDCUL. Notably, the distance between Haridwar and Rishikesh is about 20 km so the Vikram owners plying from Rishikesh to Haridwar get more passengers as well as earn more profit while Haridwar licensees have only 25 km perimeter which means passengers have to be dropped way before Rishikesh city. This in turn makes pilgrims and tourists avoid this mode of transport while commuting from Haridwar side. Citing this anomaly, Vikram owners and drivers union has urged the district administration to look into this matter with instantly rectifying the difference by having equivalent distance parameter for both cities. Pilgrims and local people commuting from the Haridwar side towards Rishikesh also have to encounter this problem and prefer using state transport or private buses for commuting purposes. But since the timings of those buses is fixed, they are forced to travel by the autos-rickshaws. Satya Narayan Sharma, representative of the auto union, in a letter to Haridwar District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram, has urged him to take the matter with instant consideration as the Char Dham yatra is at its peak and before the Kumbh city-based autos suffer huge losses. The Transport Department should have a uniform permit policy for Vikrams in the twin cities. “If this biased permit policy continues for Haridwar Vikram owners and drivers then we soon will be rendered unemployed as we already face a shortage of passengers as they don’t want vehicles that leave them way before Muni-ki-Reti and Doiwala. We too feel that while Rishikesh licencees are raking in huge profits in this tourist season we are vying for filling passengers for Rishikesh,” said Sharma.
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Cantt Blue give Yankies blues, post 6-0 win
Dehradun, July 14 In the first encounter, Arpan was the mainstay for Cantt Blue as he struck three goals in the 15th, 34th and 42nd minutes of the game. Chirchel (44th), Mukesh (65th) and Vivek (67th) chipped in with one goal each to get a convincing victory for Cantt Blue. Opponent team had no clue of what is happening and failed to put a stop
on the goals of the winning team. The strikers of the latter didn’t face much resistance in making inroads to their target area and easily found the net. Also, in the second match spirited Uttarakhand Police registered lop-sided 3-0 win over Willis Youth. Narendra Kotiyal (5th), Narender Rautela (8th) and Devendra (52nd) scored in the win. Tomorrow, Vijay Cantt will face Garhwal Sporting while Gypsy will take
on Eleven Star in another match. Gorkha Heroes edge past City Young Avinash and Vishal Thapa today scored a brace each to help Gorkha Heroes to edge past City Young in a tough encounter in the Lala Nemi Dass District Football League underway on the Pavilion Ground here. Avinash netted the first two goals of his side in the 20th and 50th minutes whereas his teammate Vishal Thapa scored the next two (52nd and 61st) to lead their side to a win from a tough stage. City Young proved a tough rival for Gorkha Heroes as the former kept the neck-and-neck competition till the end of the match. Abhiruchi scored (55th and 60th) two goals and Atul Sood (65th) netted a goal for the losing side. Earlier, in the first match, Sunderwala comfortably beat Bajrang Boys 3-0. Sumit Mall (10th), Susant Rana (40th) and Himanshu (55th) each gave one goal effort for the winning team. Meanwhile, Roshni Club will play tomorrow’s league match against Doon United and BC Milan will
meet Adhoiwala in the second match on the Pavilion Ground.
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Now, birch trees will be planted extensively to protect the Gangotri glacier.
Having witnessed the recession of the Gangotri glacier first hand, Dr Harshwanti Bist will soon initiate plantation activity up till Gaumukh to arrest the harmful effects of climate change.
Just like other big schemes of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), the one of building and selling shopping complexes to earn revenue is also facing neglect.
It will have been much better if the schemes had remained buried in the files, but unfortunately tax payers’ money has already been spent on erecting 102 shops at four locations in the city.
Nainital, July 14
