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Vijay Diwas: 1971 Indo-Pak war martyrs’ kin honoured
Homage paid to bravehearts
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His pics keep victory feeling fresh
Shoot order not yet for rampaging tusker
Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan
Students from 11 schools sing carols
Seminar on medical imaging held
Workshop on green chemistry ends
Doon schools to build new school building at Sumgarh
Village school students enthral
21 institutes face closure
Al Fateh win, courtesy umpiring row
KD Singh’s knock in vain
Landslide-hit families fight freezing chill
Darkness all the way on Haridwar streets
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Vijay Diwas: 1971 Indo-Pak war martyrs’ kin honoured
Dehradun, December 16 A total of 30 soldiers and kin of the martyrs were presented with trophies and shawls by the CM on the occasion. In his address, the CM highlighted the number of measures announced by his party. “For residential colonies for ex-servicemen we have given 17 acres in Doon, five acres in Kotdwar and have sanctioned three acres in Udham Singh Nagar,” said the CM. “We also appointed representative at block level to listen to the problems of the ex-servicemen,” he added. The CM said the amount of bravery awards had also been increased. One time settlement amount of Paramvir Chakra has been raised from 1,72,500 to 2,5,00,000, Ashok Chakra from 1,45,000 to 2,5,00,000, Sarvotam Yudh Seva Medal from 1,27,000 to 5,00,000 and so on. President of Dehradun Ex-Services League Brigadier KG Behl (retd) said they demanded one-rank one-pension, which is to be passed in the Assembly here. He said the MC assured him to help them in this. He also kept his views in front of the CM of rectifying flaws in buying of autos from canteen. “There is a limit on buying autos from canteen and there are other flaws in the scheme that was launched recently. We want these to be rectified,” added Behl. Meanwhile, the CM also released a book ‘Rajya Sainik Board Uttarakhand’ on the occasion. The book mentions the number of martyrs and bravery awardees at the time of war and while guarding the nation. It also highlights the welfare schemes for the ex-servicemen.
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Homage paid to bravehearts
Dehradun, December 16 On the day, the nation pays homage and remembers its warriors. State president of the association Lt Colonel Vijay Gadiyal greeted all ex-servicemen and families of the martyrs on the day.
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His pics keep victory feeling fresh
Dehradun, December 16 But he didn’t know at that time that his hobby would contribute in bringing alive historical moments and would be a very big thing some day. After the war ended and the Indian Army triumphed, these photographs, which were clicked by Colonel Ishwar Thapa (retd), were given to the Bangladesh Government on request and are displayed in their national archive. The historical pictures are also exhibited in the Delhi and Varanasi museums, says Thapa. He remembers, “In the war, nobody was allowed to carry personal dairies and cameras. But it was my interest in photography and I wanted to capture the memorable moments of the war that I took special permission from Sub-Major Lal Bahadur Sahi of our 2/9 GR Company and he gave me permission.”
Eighty-one-year-old Thapa had clicked a total of 260 beautiful pictures and has preserved all the negatives of the photos. Among these is a picture of the Madhumati river which is at 1,388 ft. On it was the longest bridge of the world made by the military at that time in 1971. There is also a picture of prisoners of Pakistan arrested by the Indian Army. “A total of 93,000 prisoners, along with their children and women, were arrested. Out of them, 13,000 were nabbed by our Company. “After the head count, the prisoners were taken to Allahabad and following the Shimla Agreement, they were released,” recounts Thapa. He also enthusiastically points at another of his pictures in which Pakistani troops were buried in Chhota Gaghati. “They had made 50 to 60 trenches to bury us, but our brave soldiers buried them in their own trenches,” said a proud Thapa. One picture shows Lt Gen TN Raina, the then Corps Commander who later rose to become Army Chief, congratulating Sub-Major Lal Bahadur Sahi of 2/9 GR Company just after the victory. “We were so charged up at the time of the war. We had no worry of our house and family and the only worry we had was to complete our task. We stayed in Shanti Niketan for two months and, on the right time, we left from the international border to capture Jivan Nagar in Bangaldesh. This was our first objective and we captured it in five days,” he recalled. The Company Commander also remembers the motivating words of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw at the time of the war which filled the Army with the spirit of sacrifice. “One bullet, one enemy,” this were the motivating words to the Indian Army that was determined to tear apart the Pakistani troops,” smiles Thapa. He, after his retirement in 1985, worked as a yoga teacher and has a yoga centre in Rishikesh. “I have given yoga classes in Japan, China, Taiwan and Spain several times,” added Thapa who is also a painter.
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Shoot order not yet for rampaging tusker
Under pressure from the residents of the area facing the wrath of rampaging elephant for the past five days, a team from the Forest Department had termed the activities of the 25-year-old tusker as abnormal stopping short of declaring it rogue. Though the team led by DFO of Dehradun Meenakshi Joshi has termed the behaviour of the tusker abnormal, the decision rests with the Wild Life Warden. “The report about the abnormal behaviour displayed by the elephant has been given to the Chief Wild Life Warden who is out of town at present,” said Joshi. Only the Chief Wild Life Warden can take a decision under Section 11 of the Wild Life Protection Act and even recommend drastic measures such as putting the animal to death after a careful consideration. But, the Chief Wild Life Warden ruled out the possibility for the time being. “The elephant is in heat and facing physiological phenomenon of ‘musth’, we are also in touch with the scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India and he has not been declared a rogue and neither are we contemplating putting him to death,” said Srikant Chandola, Chief Wild Life Warden on the phone. He stressed the Forest Department was not contemplating shooting down the elephant and neither has it been declared a rogue. “He is on heat and needs some more monitoring and stressed that the elephant was following his traditional route when he encountered passersby, who later became object of his wrath,” stressed Chandola Meanwhile, Senior Scientific Officer Sushant of Wild Life Institute said as he had not physically seen the elephant he could not ascertain the exact nature of the elephant, “but if the photographs appearing in local newspapers are true then it appears that the elephant is on heat the period usually occurs between December-March,” he said. Concurring with the scientists, former Dean of Wild Life Institute AJT John Singh said elephants become aggressive during this period. “I think the Forest Department should not adopt drastic measures as the population of tuskers has drastically come down. If there are 25,000 elephants the number of tuskers is less than 1,000,” said the expert.
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Rs 1.25-cr bid for Gunhill ropeway may burn holes in tourists’ pockets
Mussoorie, December 16 For a long time the ropeway was maintained and run by the Nagar Palika, Mussoorie. A few years ago, the then Nagar Palika board decided to give it on contract annually to avoid the ever-escalating maintenance costs. The firm had earlier made a tender bid of Rs 55 lakh. Many residents are of the view that the new ropeway at Kempty Falls has led to a diminished interest among tourists to take the four-minute ride to Gunhill and watch a filthy looking water reservoir run by the Jal Sansthan from the top. According to Mussoorie resident Ramesh Sharma, the increase in the tender bid to whopping Rs 1.25 crore does not augur well for tourism here as tourists are already paying eco fee, parking fee and other charges to the Palika. He fears that this season the ticket price for the Gunhill ropeway will be increased more than 20 per cent by the firm in view of the whopping bid. At present the ticket charges are around Rs 50 but soon it could go to Rs 125 per person for one to-and-fro trip. Health and social activist Sunil Sanon is of the view that the higher bid is welcomed as it will bring additional revenue to the Palika and with that money many public interest work can be initiated. However, the question remains will the Gunhill area be upgraded? Dr Sanon believes that if that additional money is used in making the ropeway much more tourist friendly by installing small sound boxes inside the ropeway trolley playing running commentary about the tourist spots of Mussoorie only then the hike in the price of the ticket can be justified. Local historian Gopal Bhardwaj is of the view that the Palika should first beautify the Gunhill area. A replica of the old Gun that was used during the British period and after which the hill was named Gunhill should be installed at the top. At present most tourists visiting Gunhill return dejected as there is nothing worthwhile to do for them at the top. Palika ward member Kedar Singh Chauhan dispelled fears of any increase in the ticket price for now. When he was questioned by this correspondent that if the ticket price hike issue would come up before the Nagar Palika Board, he said no such proposal had been put forth as yet. However, he added, if there was any such proposal in the future the board would discuss and act accordingly.
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Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan
The officials attending the meeting were put on the back foot by the representatives, mainly zila panchayat members who gave one example after the other reflecting the utter failure of the government in making the programme a success. Talking to The Tribune, Harish Bisht, who had attended the meeting on behalf of the Lok Sabha member from Nainital KC Singh Baba, pointed, “Just erecting buildings and that too of poor quality does not serve the purpose. It needs to be understood that the purpose of launching the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide quality education to the children of the state so that they can be at par with the students coming from other schools. “The government is clearly not doing enough with regard to the programme.” Sources said that the attempts of the officials to portray a rosy picture with the help of statistics proved to be a futile exercise with the participants at the meeting putting them on the defensive. A representative from Ramgarh block related that in the primary schools in Mukteshwar and Dutkanedhar, children do not have access to even clean drinking water. It was pointed out that the wall of the Laveshal primary school which had been damaged last year is still lying in the same manner with no efforts being made to repair it. A representative of the Gaula Par area while referring to the Bagjala Girls Junior High School pointed that despite having written to the administration on numerous occasions, officials have not bothered to build a boundary wall around the school. He said that the government has failed to build toilets for girls studying in the school compelling them to go to the nearby forest to relieve themselves. The representatives said that the state of basic education in Bhimtal and Okhalkanda blocks is in a pitiable condition with several schools functioning only with the help of shiksha mitras. The president of the zila panchayat Kamlesh Sharma has asked the officials to address the issues raised by the representatives at the earliest.
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Students from 11 schools sing carols
Dehradun, December 16 Students from 11 schools such as Ann Mary School, Aryan School, St Thomas College, St Jude’s School, St Xavier’s School, Moravian School, St Joseph’s Academy, Hilton School, Grace Academy, Convent of Jesus and Mary and Carman School participated in the occasion praising Jesus Christ. The programme culminated with GIG Mann, Principal of the school, delivering the vote of thanks.
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Seminar on medical imaging held
Dehradun, December 16 “The idea is to make people aware about how softwares can be developed for ECG, CT scan and other technical aids used in the medical stream in our country as till now, these are all imported and how to process these signals and images to extract diagnostic information as these are all computer-based diagnosis,” said Dr Vinod, head of the department. He said it had been an active area of research in the past two decades and there was a continuous impetus to improve the quality of images acquired from various imaging modalities. Developing CAD systems for various applications like detection of microcalcifications and masses from mammograms, detection of focal liver lesions from ultrasonographic images, interpretation of cardiac diseases by ECG signal processing - all these are challenging research tasks, he said. Prof Raj Rangayyan of the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, told the participants about three-dimensional image processing techniques for landmarking and segmentation of computed-tomographic images. He said segmentation and landmarking of computed tomographic (CT) images were important and useful in computer-aided diagnosis (CAD), treatment planning and objective analysis of normal as well as pathological regions. The major topics discussed were medical signal processing (ECG, EEG etc), medical image processing (ultrasound, CT, MRI etc), medical signal and image processing with a virtual lab concept and clinical interpretation of medical images. The seminar also included an overview of several digital image processing techniques that have been developed over the past 20 years by the University of Calgary. There were 40 participants from all over the country.
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Workshop on green chemistry ends
Dehradun, December 16 The workshop was conducted with the vision of promoting green chemistry (promotion of a chemical that has eco friendly properties) and to provide training to students on advanced analytical instrument. Around 150 students from different colleges participated in the workshop. The participants were divided into four categories to present posters on the theme. The programme commenced with the inauguration ceremony by Prof SP Singh, former Vice-Chancellor, Garhwal University. On the occasion, a manual book on hands on-training was also released. Eminent scientists from renowned institutions of India delivered their lectures on basic techniques of chromatography, advanced technique of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL).
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Doon schools to build new school building at Sumgarh
Dehradun, December 16 The residents of Sumgarh were in a state of shock. The parents and children refused to accept the same location for the new school building. It was then that Welham Boys School made a firm commitment to take up the cause of helping to rebuild the school building, a very small solace to keeping in view the gravity of the tragedy that befell the community. The school has vowed to physically and financially engage themselves for the cause of social obligation to rebuild the school through its “Outreach” programme. The students and staff have also contributed to the Sumgarh fund. The students of Welham Boys School and Wasatch Academy, USA, will be coming together to help rebuild the infrastructure of the school. The joint team of both schools will be going to the disaster-affected village in the last week of December to oversee and help in rebuilding of the school. “We hope this Sumgarh project puts something back in the lives of the little ones who watched the tragedy. We intend to build them a well-stocked library with computers and furniture,” said Dev Lahiri, Principal of the school. The estimated cost of the project is expected to be Rs 8,50,000.
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Village school students enthral
Mussoorie, December 16 The students presented folk dances of the region such as tandi, mandan, etc. They also presented several nursery rhymes, staged plays from fairy tales and sang songs. Founder of the school and Principal Laurie Chauhan read out the annual report and highlighted the annual achievements of the students. She said earlier the villagers of the area did not have an English medium school, their children had faced problems at advanced-level studies, but now Garhwali English Medium School had provided some relief to the poor parents of the area. Awards and citation were given to the students. Kunwar Singh Chauhan, AK Jain, Rajendar Nautiyal, Dinesh, Jyoti, Soni, Nirmala and others were also present.
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21 institutes face closure
Dehradun, December 16 He had asked the City Magistrate and SP (City) to look into the matter and ensure the closure of such institutes. These institutes include (Dr Baluni) Institute of Management and Technology, Time Institute of Management and Technology, Brightway Institute of Management Studies, International Academy of Information and technology, CCMC, IIHT, Gurukul Management Educational Society, Institute of Professional Studies, Dres Society, Institute of communication and Management, Coagent Group of Education, Vision and Beyond Institute, Horizon Institute of Hotel Management, Polaris Academy, Globenet Technologies, FCI Institute of Management, Institute of Business and Hospitality Management, Amazon Institute of Hotel Tourism and Management, Landmark Foundation Institute of Management and Technology, Uttaranchal Education Trade and Technology Pvt Ltd and IIPM.
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Al Fateh win, courtesy umpiring row
Dehradun, December 16 When Al Fateh needed 16 runs in 11 balls, the batsman on strike hit a towering shot. It was given as a sixer by the umpire while the ACA held that it was out as their fielder had caught the ball. When the ACA didn’t agree with the decision and left the ground, the organising committee declared Al Fateh winner. Earlier in the match, ACA had set a target of 174 runs. Varinder (73), Vipin Kashyap (56), Deepak (26) and Kunal (23) were the principal scorers. Aftab took two and Sonu, Azaz got a wicket each for Al Fateh. Al-Fateh was batting on 158 for 6 in 18.1 overs when the match had to be called off as the ACA left the ground. Shaqir (33) and Tanzim (28) were the main scorers.
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Garhwal Sporting win in tiebreaker
Dehradun, December 16 After the match ended goalless in stipulated time, it went into the tiebreaker. Pankaj, Shashank, Prashant and Ashok converted their chances into a goal for Garhwal Sporting. From the losing side, Ankur and Gajender found the net.
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KD Singh’s knock in vain
Dehradun, December 16 Meerut won the toss and elected to bat first. Meerut set a target of 181 runs for nine wickets in 35 overs. Karan (33), Manish Sharma (21*) and Anant (20) were the main scorers. Aabid, Abdhur Kadir, and Farman of Royal Cricket Club took two wickets each while Amanjeet and Avtar Singh pocketed a wicket each. Batting second, Royal Cricket Club could only score 177 runs and got all out. KD Singh who played a fine innings of 47 runs couldn’t help his side despite a good performance. Farman Ahmed (24) and Afnan (23) also chipped in. Ravindra and Abid of the rival team claimed three wickets each. Manish Sharma and Vikas Vishnoi got two and one wicket, respectively.
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Landslide-hit families fight freezing chill
Pitthoragarh, December 16 According to Queree Jimiya panchayat sources, all 36 families who had been rendered homeless in a landslide two months ago have now shifted to school, panchayat houses and cowsheds to save themselves from the winter chill. The landslide had rendered fields not fit for cultivation. “As the Balanti area witnesses more than 5 inches of show during winter, old people and children of these victim families are not in a position to tolerate this severe cold. They do not have even sufficient clothing to face the intense cold,” said Devendra Singh, Gram Pardhan of Queree Jimiya. According to the SDM, the victims have been given all relief amount according to government orders. “After paying Rs 4,000 per family as immediate relief, the victims have been given a sum Rs 50,000 for the construction of new houses and a grand total of Rs 2.25 lakh against the damage to cultivable fields of all villagers,” said the SDM. But, the villagers complained that despite their entire economy having finished, the government was neither finding any job for them nor giving them permanent settlement. “When we used to cultivate in our farms in the village each family earned nearly Rs 40,000 per year by cultivating beans and potato, but now the government has given us nearly Rs 15,000-20,000 per family for the entire cultivable land which is insufficient,” said Devendra. The Pitthoragarh District Administration claims to be fully cooperating with victims of landslide in the time of crisis and says a proposal concerning their permanent rehabilitation has been sent to the Uttarakhand Government to settle them in barren panchayat land of nearby villages. “The villagers have proposed 500 hectares of panchayat land available in some nearby villages of Sarmoli, Suring, Jalath, Harkot and Malla Ghorpatta for which the concerning villages have no
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Darkness all the way on Haridwar streets
Haridwar, December 16 High-mast lights and streetlights installed by one of the 13 certified nodal agencies for the Maha Kumbh, the Uttar Pradesh Nirman Nigam (UPNN), are standing like showpieces. Even during the Maha Kumbh, these lights were functional for just a few weeks, particularly during Shahi Snans. Perturbed over the UP Nirman Nigam’s lackadaisical attitude towards these lights, the Haridwar Municipal Committee’s Street Light Sub-committee has written to Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and State Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik to taking cognisance of the matter. Committee president Shri Ram Ahuja said despite bringing this matter to the notice of the working agency’s, no reply has yet been received. “Even during the Kumbh tenure these lights were barely functional but it’s high time that it’s now almost one year since these were installed yet the lights are of no use to the people of Haridwar and almost stand as a disgrace to the city. These non-functional lights have led to many accidents,” said Ahuja. Notably, more than 10 high-mast lights and dozens of streetlights were installed by neighbouring state’s working agency. Chairman of the BJP-led Palika Kamal Johra put the onus on state Urban Development Minister who allegedly expressed more faith in the Uttar Pradesh nodal department rather than the host municipal committee. He said earlier the work was allocated to the Palika but later was given to the UPNN which installed poor quality lights and also didn’t keep their maintenance. Dinesh Joshi, another councillor, demanded a probe into this matter as according to him this is a blatant misuse of the Kumbh funds. The lights installed at a cost of Rs 5 crore were functional for a short period. Many social organisations have demanded that either the lights be made operational or the UPNN is subjected to a penalty. “This is one of the dozens of examples of Kumbh fund bungling. Even Kumbh in charge minister Madan Kaushik, who is also Haridwar legislator, kept mum on this issue,” remarked JP Pandey, convener of the Uttarakhand Kranti Manch, which is planning an agitation to highlight the matter.
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Dehradun,
December 16
Dehradun, December 16
Under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Department of Sciences and Technology, a two-day workshop on “Instrumentation Analysis” ended at the Dolphin Institute of Biomedical and Natural Sciences here today.The workshop was conducted with the vision of promoting green chemistry (promotion of a chemical that has eco friendly properties) and to provide training to students on advanced analytical instrument.
Pitthoragarh, December 16
Dehradun, December 16
Nainital, December 16
