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Riot of colour
at Company Garden
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Rainwater harvesting to become law in state
Peyjal Nigam yet to start work on sewage treatment plants
DEHRADUN DIARY
Insurance claim cases suffer due to shortage of veterinary officers
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Riot of colour at Company Garden
Mussoorie, July 18 The Company Garden, which is a property of the Nagar Palika, Mussoorie, is now run and maintained by the Garden Welfare Association under the PPP mode. Various dignitaries like Governor Margaret Alva and Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank have appreciated the maintenance of the garden. The flowers in full bloom have given a new beauty to the landscape and are attracting tourists, botanists and flower lovers alike. The Begonia is one of the varieties of cultivated ornamental plants. Garden Welfare Association secretary CP Saklani said they had introduced more than 400 varieties of Begonias in the garden, making it the only place in India with such a huge collection of the plant varieties. Begonia collectors like Ramesh Bisht are thronging the place to witness this spectacle of flowers, plants of which were collected from various regions of India. According to Ramesh, this is by far the biggest collection of Begonias in the area. According to horticulture experts and maintenance manager at the garden Harish Sharma and Vimal Sharma, the Begonia is a genus in the flowering plant family Begoniaceae. The genus name is after Michel Bégon, a French patron of botany. Another species saucer magnolia is probably one of the most popular magnolias here. It originated as a hybrid of two Asian magnolias, China’s ivory white yulan magnolia (M Denudata) pollinated by Japan's Lily magnolia (M Liliflora). Flowers with white, pink and purple are providing added colour to the garden in monsoon. Two fossil trees called gingkobioloba, presumably introduced by Dr Hugh Falconer, are also a treat to watch and especially during autumn when they are covered with golden leaves. The tree with Chinese origin is considered to be auspicious and used to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s and many skin problems. Other flowers varieties like blasam, salvia, nustursium, geranium, rose, canterbury bells are also enchanting tourists. A food court providing hygienic stuff will be ready within 15 days. It is aptly called Begonian Glory and is situated along with other restaurants, Rendevous and Copper Grill, the achievements the Garden Welfare Association can boast of. The hybrid nursery is another added attraction in the garden added the Sharma Brothers. Ramandeep, a tourist from Phagwara, says after entering the garden one feels relaxed and children can play in the amusement park, thus it is is a place for every age and worth visit. Chandni, a housewife from Haryana, liked the spring at the garden. She said children loved boating at the lake. The Company Garden can be termed as a success story for the projects executed under the PPP mode. However, according to the real owner of the garden, the Nagar Palika, it is only receiving a paltry sum as share in the revenue from the garden. But, the Palika
authorities are extremely happy that it has emerged as the most favoured tourist destination in town.
The park land was bought from East India Company According to local historian and chronicler Gopal Bhardwaj, the Municipal Garden came into being around 1840 when Dr Hugh Falconer (February 29, 1808-January 31, 1865), a Scottish paleontologist and botanist and younger brother of notable merchant Alexander Falconer, also a disciple of Charles Darwin, thought of opening a branch of botanical garden similar to one in Calcutta (now Kolkata) for the experimentation and research on fossil expeditions in the Shivalik Hills with the assistance of Proby Cautely, famous for planning the Ganga Canal in Haridwar. The municipal authorities then bought the present land from East India Company for Rs 1,00,000
and named it the Company Bagh. It was the third garden in a series, the first being at Calcutta (Kolkata) and the second at Saharanpur. Dr Falconer and Cautely worked at the Company Bagh as base and studied a large collection of fossil mammalia, among them a hippopotamus and crocodile fossils indicating that the area was once a swampland. Other fossil remains they had found here included that of sabre-toothed tiger, elephis ganesa, an elephant with the trunk length of about 10, ostrich and giant cranes and tortoises. It was here that they came to the conclusion that the Shivalik Hills are the southernmost and geologically the youngest foothills running parallel to the
main Himalayas. Dr Falconer and Cautely introduced many species of plants, trees and flowers, including tea plants, in the garden. However, they could not grow tea due to climatic conditions. The garden bears testimony to the great findings on fossil plants conducted by Dr Falconer and Cautely.
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Harela festival heralds green wave in fields
Pitthoragarh, July 18 “It seems that this folk tradition is in practice since long when the Kumaoni society came into existence,” says Dr Mathura Dutt Mathpal, social historian and linguist of the region. To celebrate the Harela festival, Kumaon folk put seven main grains grown in the area traditionally in a bin and cover it with soil to make these germinate. After nine days when these grains, which are kept away from sunlight, germinate, are cut and after making an offering to the local deities are put on the heads of all members of a family by the oldest member. The festival culminates after a delicious feast organised within the family. “At some places of the Kumaon region, this festival is also dedicated to the family of Lord Shiva, and people, after making small mud statues of the Shiva family, offer them harela as the first offering,” said Padma Dutt Pant, another expert on the Kumaoni culture. According to the Kumaoni tradition, the Harela festival is celebrated three times in a year. At the beginning of three main crop seasons of the region, rains, summer and winter. “The festival, which is celebrated according to the solar calendar is celebrated on the 10th of the Ashwin month, 9th of Chetra and first day of Shrawan. “But the Harela festival celebrated in Shrawan has the highest significance as it follows rains producing the maximum green for society,” said Dr Ram Singh, social historian of the region. According to experts on socio-culture history of Kumaon, the tradition of celebrating Harela is a primitive tradition and it started with the experimentation by ancient Kumaoni people with grains, whether the seeds sown in the mud germinate or not. “Being a festival of the agrarian society, this tradition is cerebrated in every tribal group of India, especially among communities in Jharkhand, Bundelkhand, Rajasthan and the northeastern region by various names. This is an example standing for thousands of years of how our primitive people experimented with grain and after being successful on that, switched over to cultivation from hunting,” said Dr Ram Singh. With the Harela festival, the six-month-long chain of local traditional festivals has begun in Kumaon. “These festival starts on the day of Harela and culminates on January 14 when the festival of Makar Sankranti is celebrated in Kumaon,” said MD Mathpal. On the occasion of the Harela festival, a grand local fair, having roots in the Chand dynasty, was organised in Champawat district. “This festival was started by the Chand kings some 1,000 years ago at the ancient Goralchaur ground in the district. During old times people used to sell local products in the festival which has now been replaced by the goods procured from outside Kumaon,” said
Dinesh Pandey, journalist based in Champawat.
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A plantation day at Forest Rangers’ College
Dehradun, July 18 The planted saplings included varieties such as charu, champa, jarul, kachnar, etc. The holes had been dug yesterday and all that the volunteers had to do was place the saplings in the holes and fill these up with earth and then stamp on these with their feet. Another volunteer came to water the plant. A water tanker has been arranged for the purpose. The plantation ceremony was spearheaded by Dr Nitin Pandey and his wife Sonia Pandey. There was a pick-up van from a nursery and each volunteer bought the sapling of his or her choice. There were no speeches and no chief guest. It was a simple affair, where every volunteer knew his or her role. Of course, there were volunteers with experience who were at hand to guide the novices. The whole operation lasted a little over an hour.
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Choose career as per calibre, says expert
Dehradun, July 18 She was presenting her views regarding the career options for poor girls, who cannot afford to study due to lack of money. She was speaking at a workshop on “Career Guidance and Motivation” organised by the Udayan Care Organisation- Shalini Fellowships, at Welham Girls School here today. Dr Aggarwal discussed about the career in government as well as private sector. She asked all students, from various schools and colleges of the district that come under the organisation, to learn about themselves, their values, interests, and skills in combination with their personality before selecting their career. “Be sure what you want to do in your life,” Dr Aggarwal said. “Choose a career for which you have the liking. You will excel in your work only if you undertake a work that you prefer to do,” she added. Dr Aggarwal asked the girls to discuss about their future with their parents, teachers, friends, counsellors or those who are already into that profession.
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Rainwater harvesting to become law in state
Pitthoragarh, July 18 “Under the Act about which the Planning Department is holding a meeting of four departments concerned, drinking water, irrigation, forest and hydro power, on July 28 this month. It will be made compulsory under the Act that the department which exploits drinking water will also have to recharge that,” said Parkash Pant, Drinking Water Minister,
Uttarakhand. According to Uttarakhand Drinking Water Ministry sources, out of 5,600 drinking water schemes in the state, water in 142 schemes has dried this year. The state is taking drinking water from three means, surface and ground water sources and other resources. “At present the percentage of surface water sources in this supply is gradually going down due to deforestation of catchment areas of major rivers in the state,” said Pant giving an example that out of 22 small tributaries of the Kosi river in Almora only five had been left till date, affecting 300 villages in its catchment area. The sources accepted that at present the department had not achieved much to collect and penetrate rainwater into ground, besides water preservation works being done under
NREGA. “As the state is compelled under a Supreme Court verdict to provide minimum of 3 litres of drinking water per day per capita, we are not providing minimum drinking water to those 2,292 localities where neither surface nor ground sources for drinking water are available,” said Pant. According to ministry sources, the state receives an average of 1,600 mm rainfall every year. “This data is based on four modules based at four places of
Dehradun, Tehri, Pantnagar and Mukteshwar in the state,” said the minister adding that if only 3 per cent of this rain water could be harvested, the state could be at par with other states that were providing minimum drinking water according to national standards. “We are providing 135 litres per capita drinking water to the town areas and 40 litres to rural areas at present for which we have increased our sources in the past 10 years in the form of 22,000 hand pumps in the state,” said the minister.
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Peyjal Nigam yet to start work on sewage treatment plants
Dehradun, July 18 The sewage treatment plants under JNNURM are to be constructed for isolated pockets of Indira Nagar Colony,
Salawala, Doon Vihar and Vijay Colony with a capacity of 7.13 mld each, but Peyjal Nigam has been unable to select a construction as the companies that applied quoted 40 per cent higher rates than the sanctioned rates. “We have once again started the re-tendering procedure and will be selecting companies to carry out construction work by the end of July,” said SC Pant, Executive Engineer, Peyjal
Nigam. Meanwhile, Peyjal Nigam has also acquired land behind Doon University for the construction of 20-mld Motherawala sewage treatment plant under the
JNNURM. Already Rs 13.65 crore has been allocated for the construction of sewage treatment plants in the city. Besides, work on another sewage treatment plant at Kargi to be constructed under the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) is locked in litigation and no work has started on this plant. The plan envisages establishing of six STPs in the city the work on under JNNURM at a total cost of Rs 54.65
crore. The ADB programme envisages improving the quality and quantity of water supply and also the sewerage system of catchment areas of Bindal and
Rispana.
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DEHRADUN DIARY
The situation could have turned bad as BJP party workers and MLA supporters started attacking the police station and policemen. Senior police officials, including Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Abhinav Kumar, acted wisely to diffuse the situation by announcing the suspension of policemen involved in the incident. This led to resentment amongst his own party legislators and even some ministers who pressed him to take strong action. The fact that the state Director-General of Police Subhash Joshi was to go to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on deputation and Dehradun SSP Abhinav Kumar was awaiting promotion came handy for Chief Minister Nishank to remove the DGP and the Dehradun SSP and some other transfers. Vijay Raghav Pant, Additional Director-General of Police (Administration), was given the charge of DGP for the time being till a new incumbent joins. This helped him placate the anger of the BJP legislators and ministers and also gave a public message that he had acted tough. The deputation of DGP Subhash Joshi was cleared by the Central government and he was going as Special DGP to the CRPF in Guwahati. It was a blessing in disguise for Abhinav Kumar who had been awaiting his promotion orders from the state babus. He was promoted as DIG and posted the at the state police headquarters. But the action has further demoralised the state police force that has been reeling under severe pressure following attack on several policemen by leaders of the ruling party and even individuals in the past three years of the BJP rule. Even in the case of beating up of the MLA, it was the legislator himself, who had been asked to move his vehicle for the smooth traffic flow, who started quarrelling with policemen. Suspended policemen charge that not only he abused them, but also physically assaulted forcing them to lose patience. It is an irony that since the first incident when the then Chief Minister Major-Gen BC Khanduri (retd) removed a police inspector who acted tough against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) hooligans in March 2007, the Uttarakhand police has been at the receiving end. The second incident that rocked the Nishank government was its decision to cancel the allotment of 56 hydro-electric projects on the eve of a writ petition in the Nainital High Court challenging the decision and demanding a probe into the allotments by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The issue had become important politically as well since the opposition Congress had been raking it up in the Assembly and outside it charging the state government of allotting hydro-electric projects to people and companies not having any expertise or experience in building hydro-electric projects. Chief Minister Nishank had been defending his decision, but under the Opposition onslaught in the budget session of the Assembly, announced that the allotments were not final and a committee of the secretaries would look into the individual cases. There were hectic activities in the state government as
the PIL was to come up before the Nainital High Court. Senior Central BJP party leaders were consulted. Former Uttar Pradesh Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, who is considered a constitutional expert and good lawyer, was hired to defend the state government in the court. However, unsure of the court reaction, the state government on the eve of the hearing of the petition cancelled the entire process of allotment giving the reason of faulty advertisement at the time of inviting bids for these projects. This helped the Chief Minister to again wriggle out of tricky situation where he was finding it difficult to defend his decisions.
Who’s next after
Joshi
With the exit of Subhash Joshi as the Director-General of Police, Uttarakhand, the state government is faced with another task of selecting a new police chief. The Uttarakhand government has constituted a screening committee headed by the Chief Secretary of the state. Four of the police officers according to their seniority are in the race. They are AB Lal, senior most and one of the most competent officers who was earlier also ignored at the time of elevation of Subhash Joshi, JS Pandey, Satyabrat Bansal. These three officers are already holding the rank of Director-General of Police, while Renuka Mattoo belonging to the 1976 batch of the IPS is currently on deputation with the Central government. Interestingly, after the removal of Joshi, the state government gave the charge of his post to Additional Director-General of Police (Administration) Vijay Raghav Pant. He is from the 1978 batch, but is known to be an efficient officer. There are rumours that the Chief Minister will have a final say in the appointment of a new police chief of the state.
Martoliya takes
charge
GS Martoliya, a well-grounded police officer, has been given the charge of the Dehradun police following the beating of a ruling party legislator. Martoliya, a tribal police officer, is known as an officer who knows the city very well. He had also served as Superintendent of Police (City) a few years ago. He is considered an efficient police officer who is well aware of the problems faced by the city, including the nexus between the criminal and land mafias. In his first success after taking over, the Dehradun police nabbed the culprit who was making hoax calls of a bomb planted in the busy Paltan Bazar. Hope he has some solution for the deteriorating traffic situation of the expanding city. |
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Insurance claim cases suffer due to shortage of veterinary officers
Dehradun, July 18 As a majority of the cases at the consumer courts pertain to livestock insurance claim cases, the villagers are unable to furnish necessary
testimonials required to strengthen their cases with no veterinary officials appointed at the block level. “Attestation by the veterinary officer is required for getting the claim money, but most of the time the
villagers are unable to pursue the cases,” said RK Sharma, Chairman, District Consumer Forum (Dehradun). The aggrieved parties dissatisfied with the services that they have paid for can file an appeal at the District Forum created pertaining to banking, medical negligence, insurance,
household goods, railways, airlines, telecom, postal, electricity, and housing (private, government and by societies), education, road and
transport and other services. The limit to which a complainant can approach the District Forum for compensation ranges between Rs 1-20 lakh. While the State Disputes Redressal Commission can be approached for a compensation ranging between Rs 20 lakh-1 crore and above at the National Commission. Despite the Consumer Court Act making it mandatory, the appointment of male and female members at District Consumer Forums, at least five vacancies exist in Nainital, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Champawat and Pithoragarh. At these forums, only one member has been appointed, while in Pithoragarh district the government has not appointed a single member. However, the courts are functioning normally in the four District Consumer Forums as quorum can be achieved even with two members, including the chairman.
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Sunderwala Boys register narrow victory
Dehradun, July 18 Tadiyal scored the match-turning goal in the 12th minute. No other goal came in the first half and the Sunderwala Boys were leading with 1-0. The Sarvodaya Club also put up a good performance and became a hard nut to crack for the opposite team. The former made some good goal-bearing attempts, but couldn’t find the nets. However, if it couldn’t score, it also didn’t let the opponent score in the second half. With this the match ended on 1-0 in Sunderwala Boys’ favour. Meanwhile, the Super League matches will start
from tomorrow. The first match of the league will be played between Akranta and Gorkha United.
Willis Youth beat Cantt Blue 3-1
Arpan scored a brace to lead Willis Youth to a 3-1 win over Cantt Blue during the DFA Super League at the Police Lines here today. Though Cantt Blue scored the first goal of the match in the 10th minute of the play through Pun Bahadur, it failed to score later on. Mohit (12th) of Willis Youth retaliated quickly to level the match. Arpan too scored his first and team’s second goal in the 24th minute to finish the first half 2-1 in Willis Youth’s favour. Rival team Cantt Blue desperately looked for a goal in the second half but to no avail. Whereas Arpan stuck again in the 65th minute and the play ended on 3-1. In another match played today, Eleven Star beat Sports Hostel 1-0 with a fine goal of Amit (50th). Garhwal Sporting will meet mighty Uttarakhand Police and Vijay Cantt will take on the Yankies Club in tomorrow’s super league matches.
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Tibetan school sports godown gutted
Mussoorie, July 18 According to fire official BR Gildyal, they received the information about the fire around 8 am from the school authorities. A team of fire tenders rushed to the spot and managed to control the fire in one hour. According to school officials, the damage is yet to be ascertained, but will be around Rs 50,000 or more. As per fire officials, the reason behind the fire is presumed to be short circuit. The godown contained sports equipment and some scrap material. The fortunate part was that the fire did not reach the girls hostel above, otherwise the damage could have increased manifold.
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The Uttarakhand government faced two embarrassing situations during the past fortnight, but somehow managed to wriggle out of these unscathed. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had to face embarrassing moments when a legislator of his own ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was allegedly beaten up by policemen and then thrown into the lockup at Prem Nagar police station in Dehradun.