Dehradun, November 1
Due to the soaring prices of oil, milk, dry fruits and other items, sweets this festive season may give a toothache to many. People will be required to shell out 10 per cent extra amount to get their favourite sweets.

The cost of popular sweets has increased between 5 per cent and 10 per cent at the city’s premier sweets shops this year.

Popular sweets shop owners confirm that the cost of every “mithai” has risen by around Rs 5 to Rs 10 per kg. While a few attribute this to the festive season, others say expensive dry fruits and the rise in the price of milk and oil are affecting the cost.

Talking to The Tribune, Nitin Kumar of Kumar Sweets said, “The price of milk as well as dry fruits has increased this year and this has affected the prices of sweets, but the hike is not much”. It is to be noted that the price of milk had increased from Rs 24 to Rs 30 per litre earlier this year.

The price of kaju barfi, panjiri barfi, kalakand and milkcake has no doubt gone up by 10 per cent. He said, “Sweets are sold like hot cakes on any occasion. Be it a festival or marriage, these are always in demand”.

Kumar Sweets is not just offering sweets made of milk or khoya, but also providing a good bite to the public by presenting sweets made of imported chocolates.

Satyavrat Rawat of Bengali Sweets said people preferred patisa, sone halwa and pinni the most during the season. “Our specialty is bal mithai (originated in Almora). It is made of mava and sugar coated with poppy seeds. Other than this, people like singori made of coconut flakes and pista. People also prefer home-made chocolate,” he affirmed.

Gagan Aggarwal of Gola Sweets shared that he was offering a variety of sweets, as this was his first venture with the city in the festive season. “Our specialty is Banarasi sweets like kheer kadam and kheer mohan, the product made of milk and chhena. All my workers are from Benaras, so our sweets have Banarasi taste,” said Aggarwal.

All shopkeepers maintained that the items like milk cake (Rs 260 per kg), dhooda barfi (Rs 260 per kg), patisa (Rs 250 per kg), pinni (Rs 250 per kg) and sone papri (Rs 260 per kg) were in great demand this season.

Criticising the adulteration of sweets during the festive season, Rawat claimed, “Mawa used in sweets is not of bad quality, but the only reason is that it lacks the quantity of fats as it is made of milk contents. Sales tax people declare it adulterated only when they find that the person has not paid the tax”.

One shopkeeper said, “The hype is just created by multinational companies so that they can sell their products easily, otherwise people who have a sweet tooth can not change their taste”.

Nainital, November 1
Famous filmmaker Sanjay Kak has stated that Kashmiris need to be provided a democratic space so that they can decide upon the future of their homeland and its citizens. He has also criticised the militarisation of the valley.

Kak was in Nainital for the screening of his well acclaimed film “Jashn-e-Azadi” which traces the journey of the residents of the valley over the past two decades amidst uncertainties and strife. During an interaction with him after the film, he said: “The Kashmiris need to be given a democratic space to decide upon their future. Right now their condition is like that of a man on whom a heavyweight wrestler sits and asks him what he wants.”

He was particularly critical of the growing militarisation of the area and said when the government itself claimed that there were a few hundred militants in the valley, what was the need of such a large presence of military there?

On being questioned on Kashmir continuing to be at crossroads as it was two decades back, he pointed out: “During this period a lot of things have changed. The entire politics has changed. Where it is going depends on how much political space they are given.”

Talking to The Tribune, he said: “There are a whole lot of things that are coming out from the region. At a recent interaction with the youth of the valley I saw that they are keen to discuss their future. They talk of azadi and then ponder what kind of azadi that would be. I was surprised when they recently wanted to discuss trade unionism in their homeland.”

Replying to another query, he said: “Although the mood right now is for azadi but if given time and space maybe five years down the line they might opt to be with the Indian system.”

Kak asserted that he belongs to a family of Army men and has great respect for the force but at the same time he was not in favour of military being called to resolve issues that were primarily civil in nature.

He also expressed his viewpoint while accepting that it may be “utopian” in nature that why can’t India and Pakistan work out on a solution on the lines of what Italy and Germany have worked out for a region on their border whereby the valley can be independent with both the sides supporting it.

His film traces the developments in Kashmir right from the first movement for azadi to what was happening in 2007. In between he talks of the migration of Kashmiri Pandits, the arrival of mercenaries from abroad, the phase of counter insurgency led by Ikhwans, the movement being led by groups in favour of Pakistan and then the disillusionment with both India and Pakistan. It talks of what azadi or freedom means to the Kashmiris. The film also traces how the youth there has lost faith in the legal system, the human rights groups and other institutions.

Kak also pointed out that the present scenario was more dangerous as the youth was disgruntled on one side and was without a leader on the other.

Pitthoragarh, November 1
Indian traders engaged in Indo-Tibet border trade after it resumed in 1992 are a happy lot this year as the Centre has with some conditions permitted to import Chinese silk through the border trade. According to the trade officer, this year 1,160 cartons of Chinese raw silk have been imported by Indian traders from Tibet during five months of the trade period which ended on October, 31. According to the traders, this Chinese raw silk costs Rs 4 crore in the market.

“The government of India has banned imports of Tibetan silk in 2005 as it was being imported directly by the traders outside from tribal community and was not beneficial for the tribal traders as a trade,” said Padam Singh Raypa, president of the Seemant Vyapar Sangthan based in Dharchula.

According to Raypa, after receiving the tribal traders’ complained, the ministry concerned, that had made it mandatory to obtain a license under director general foreign trade rules, opined that only the traders from the tribal community could import the raw silk and it would be dumped in Uttarakhand only an the mills using it from outside Uttarakhand would have to purchase it from Uttarakhand depots as there was no single mill in Uttarakhand which uses the Chinese silk. Raypa said before 2005 the practice was adverse to it and all silk was imported by outside traders.

Haridwar, November 1
If everything goes as per the plan, soon Haridwar-based government schools will be getting fresh meals directly supplied from a centralised kitchen under the Mid-day Meal Scheme. The food will be transported via vehicles in no time.

Aimed at providing nutritious food to underprivileged schoolchildren as also lessening the workload on teachers and bhojan matas in schools, the new arrangement envisages distribution of packaged nutritious food among the schoolchildren.

This concept is being worked out by the ISCKON Food Relief Foundation in association with the district administration. The plan is to have two centralised kitchens in Roorkee and Jagjeetpur tehsils of Haridwar district. The Jagjeetpur kitchen will cater to schools in Haridwar, Bahadrababad, Khanpur, Lakshar while the Roorkee kitchen will take care of Bhagwanpur, Narsain, Mangalore schools.

Additional District Education Officer KK Gupta said there were total 844 primary and 280 upper primary schools in the district to which this scheme would be providing midday meal services from the two centralised kitchens.

District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram said the project was being given final touches and would be implemented as soon as vehicles and other requirements are fully met.

A steering committee has also been formed. From the next year, the schoolchildren in Haridwar will be getting fresh cooked food ferried by vehicles lessening load on bhojan matas and school teachers can better focus on the educational part, not worrying about the ration storage and cooking.

The ISKCON foundation spokesman stated that as the mid-day meal was the only complete meal in the whole day which these underprivileged children had access to, our focus was on providing them nutritious fresh food to prevent malnutrition among them. So the centralised kitchens are the best thing to make sure we provide these growing children what they need.

Notably, the Mid-day Meal Scheme has been overwhelmingly successful wherever it has been implemented with rise in the attendance and enrolment rate in the schools and students focusing more on their studies.

Dehradun, November 1
Bollywood actor Anupam Kher has expressed a desire to set up a branch of his acting school in the capital city. Kher, who was in Dehradun, met Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today. He said he would like to open the sixth international acting school in Dehradun as he found the place full of budding talent.

Kher told the Chief Minister that he had already set up five acting schools, which were running successfully in India as well as abroad.

When Nishank asked Kher to conduct a national-level workshop in the state, he immediately agreed.

Dehradun, November 1
The Karyalaya Rajya Yuva Kalyan Parishad, Uttarakhand, organised a three-day science fair and exhibition at Rajkiya Inter College, Gujrada, here today.

Dr Baleshwar Pal, vice-president, Rajya Uccha Shiksha Ayog Committee, inaugurated the event, while accompanying him was Subhash Barthwal, vice-president of the parishad, as guest of honour.

The exhibition was open to the general public to create interest in the field of science and technology. Many students from other schools had gathered to present their skills and exhibit models as well as charts on the theme of “Science and Technology - for the challenges of life”.

The exhibition was organised with an aim to deliver information and cater to the queries of people, specially students, regarding the importance of science in everyone’s life as well as the advantages of technologies. The participating students delivered a live demonstration of the latest technologies facilitating day-to-day life through models.

A science competition at the block level was also held on the occasion, while the winners of the competition will be declared tomorrow.

The teachers also enlightened the participants about organic diversity, farming and technology, green energy, transportation and telecom, health and environment.

Dehradun, November 1
Chandragupta section won the inter-section quiz competition held at RIMC here yesterday. Each section was represented by a group of four cadets. Pratap section was represented by cadet Sabyasachi Mishra, cadet Prakhar Kaushik, cadet Hemant Poonia and cadet Akash Kumar.

Ranjit section was represented by cadet Sachin Lakhawat, cadet Taral Chanchani, cadet A Malik and cadet Tabu Nguki. Shivaji section was represented cadet Krishnapal Singh, cadet Gokul Mahajan, cadet Utkarsh Baru and cadet Shivam Sharma. Chandragupta section was represented by cadet Shinjan Chakraborty, cadet Aditya Kalsotra, cadet Risabh Raj and cadet Pabitra Ojha.

The quiz masters of the evening were Rachna Malhotra, Neelam Kaushik, PK Jain and Neeraj Negi. The overall coordinators of the quiz competition were PK Sharma and T Selvan. The chief guest of the evening was Col PK Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC. 

Dehradun, November 1
‘Dharohar’, the annual function of the Quantum Global Campus, Roorkee, offered a unique treasure of wisdom, along with lots of fun and extravaganza, on the college campus yesterday.

Inaugurating the function, Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said, “Uttarakhand is the land of renowned literaries. Most of the noted souls have got inspirations from the Himalayas and enriched the world with their inventions. The new generation has to augment the legacy. Students at Quantum should carry forward this legacy”. He urged students to embibe moral values so that they reached the pinnacle of their aspirations.

Earlier, Director-General Prof SC Handa welcomed the guests and informed that Quantum Global Campus had made a landmark in the education of engineering and management.

Dr DS Chauhan, Vice-Chancellor, Uttarakhand Technical University, and Ajay Goel, Chairman, Quantum Global Campus, presented prizes to the best all-round students of the campus. The recipient from the Engineering Department was Abhishek Verma and from the Management Department Parwaz Akhtar and Ashish Chauhan.

The second anniversary of Dharohar attracted the participation of students from over 40 colleges from Roorkee, Dehradun and Saharanpur.

The other dignitaries who were present included Suresh Chandra Jain, MLA Roorkee, Prof HC Nainwal, Jyoti Gairola, Chairman, Forest Development Corporation, Anil Goel and Shobhit Goel.

Dehradun, November 1
On the occasion of the 53rd founder’s day of the school, students of Welham Girls presented an exhibition highlighting the importance of the interrelation of various subjects here today.

The main function was a cultural programme in the evening, which was inaugurated by chief guest Margaret Alva, Governor of Uttarakhand. A dance-drama was based on a theme which is close to every Welhamite’s heart, namely, “A concern for our Planet”.

Following it was “The Year That Was”, an audio-visual presentation on the activities of the girls in the school. The presentation also highlighted how the school nurtures and taps the talent present in every individual while giving students an opportunity to explore as well as hone their own individual skills.

While addressing the students, Alva congratulated them for celebrating the 53 glorified years of the establishment. She also appreciated the efforts put in by the students as well as teachers. She blessed the school as well as the students with a great future ahead. 

Haridwar, November 1
Showing their prowess in various track and field competitions, the BHEL Tiruchi Unit team won the coveted championship in the just concluded inter-BHEL athletics meet in Haridwar taking the maximum number of points in overall category. While champion title was jointly awarded to Tiruchi’s Mohan Kumar and Jhansi’ Mohit Ray for their overall performance.

In the 5,000 metre relay race, Mohit Ray from Jhansi won the gold medal with Tiruchi’s K Krishnanan and Vijay Kumar bagging silver and bronze medals, respectively. In the 100 metre dash, Mohan Kumar from Tiruchi came first with Sri Nath from Bangalore coming second and Deepak Sharma from Bhopal being second runner-up.

In shot-put event, Suraj of Jhansi, Satya Prakash from Tiruchi and Dashrath Ram from Bhopal were the first three winners while in high jump, S Rammoorti and Hariharan from Tiruchi and Anil Kumar from Delhi won the gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Javelin throw event saw host Haridwar’s Harbhajan Singh taking the gold medal followed by Bhopal’s Vijay Singh Rawat and Delhi’s Anil Kumar Saini sharing the podium with silver and bronze medals, respectively. The other results were 800m gold medalist Mohit Ray, Jhansi, Kushalbeer Haridwar, K Krishnan, Tiruchi, in 400m race Mohan Kumar Tiruchi, Hariharan, Tiruchi and Rajkamal, Haridwar, in 200m race Mohan Kumar again replicated the 400m gold medal success followed by Inder Kumar of Tiruchi and Hirendra Thakur of Bhopal, 1500m race Mohit Ray, Jhansi, K Krishnan, Tiruchi, Vinay Kumar, Tiruchi shared the podium.

Senior Manager HAR and BHEL Sports Club KS Bhandari said in the athletics meet saw 13 disciples with more than 100 odd athletes from 11 BHEL units participating in the two-day annual meet with 39 prizes were on stake.

While presenting prizes to the winners, BHEL Managing Director Devendra Kumar Mody pointed out that be it in working or in sports BHEL employees present a disciplined and sincere outlook which was to pitch in efforts a little bit extra which separated them from the others.

On the occasion present were Additional Manager PR Rajeev Bhatnagar, Subash Chand Sports Club Joint Secretary, ceremony coordinator Dr Naresh Mohan, BHEL cricket captain Inder Mohan Barthwal, Manoj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Lakhan Singh and Subash Malik with contributions from schools of Bal Mandir, Central School and DPS with children presenting a skillful equestrian show post-prize awarding ceremony. 

Dehradun, November 1
Doon Tigers Academy scored an interesting two-run win against ITCC Tigers in the Chaudhary Charan Singh Memorial Twenty20 Cricket Tournament held at Matawala Bagh here today.

Doon Tigers won the toss and chose to bat first. The batsmen of the team started off well with their respective innings, but failed to convert their scores to a big number.

Somehow, Doon Tigers managed to score 120 runs in 20 overs for six wickets.

Kapil (31) and Bharat (23) were the top scorers for the batting side. Mohit and Rohit of ITCC took two wickets each while Gandhi and Anuprath got a wicket each for the team.

Batting second, ITCC fought well but just fell short of two runs as it could score 118 runs in 20 overs. Virat (51) was the mainstay of the ITCC’s innings. Rajeev and Honey caught three and two wickets, respectively, for Doon Tigers.

Shanky and Bhagat pocketed a wicket each. 

Dehradun, November 1
The KVS Club and the ABC Club won the girls and boys championships, respectively, in the District-level Basketball Championship held on the Parade Ground here today.

In girls’ final, the KVS Club defeated Stadium 44-34. Jyoti was the highest scorer for the winning team with 22 points. While Anjali (15 points) fought well in the lost battle of the Stadium team.

In the keenly contested boys’ final, ABC Club beat Stadium A 49-45. Deepak Bhaati (26 points) and Manoj (15 points) were the main scorer in the match.

Earlier in the girls’ semi-final, ABC Club beat Stadium A by 48-21. Manoj Kandari with 13 points was highest scorer of the match. In boys’ semi-final, Stadium A beat Race Course boys 38-33.

Dehradun, November 1
KV, IMA, entered final defeating KV, FRI, 3-1 in the first semi-final of the ongoing ONGC Ram Bahadur Chetri Memorial Inter-School Football Tournament here today.

Saurabh (25th, 72nd) and Jitender (46th) were the main scorers in the win of KV, IMA. While from the opponent team, Ashish (57th) was the lone scorer. This encounter was billed as the toughest one in which KV, IMA, managed to win.

With this win, KV, IMA, sealed the final seat. Other semi-final match is scheduled to be played between St Joseph Academy and SGRR Mission A tomorrow at 3 pm. 

Dehradun, November 1
Jaswant Modern Senior Secondary School celebrated its 62nd annual day here today. The celebration opened with an exhibition put up by students of classes VI to XII showcasing their talent on various subjects- commerce, puppetry and clay work.

The celebration commenced with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by chief guest Justice KD Shahi, Chairman, State Consumer Redressal Forum and Director, Unison School of Law.

The cultural programme included dances, songs and music. The highlight of the function was a dance-drama “United We Stand” staged by junior students, and “Shiva-The Cosmic Being”, a presentation of light and sound performed by 250 odd senior students of the school.

Meenakshi Gandhotra, Principal of the school, read the annual report. She also welcomed parents’ suggestions in the school newsletter, “Samvad”, and briefed about the visualised road map of the school in the years to come.

The programme culminated with a vote of thanks delivered by Meenakshi followed by the school song and the National Anthem.

Other dignitaries presented on the occasion were principals from various schools, Scholars Home, Kasiga, Him Jyoti, Unison World, St Joseph’s Academy, Little Flower School, Jagrathi Vidhyalaya and Marshall School.