Dehradun, December 18
A Multimedia, Audio-Visual presentation on the theme “Indian Military Academy (IMA) Through Ages” was organised at the Drill Square of the academy on the eve of the autumn term 2010.

A gathering of 5,000 spectators was mesmerised by witnessing such a stunning performance. The impact of the event was so strong that even parents joined the programme in the end.

The aim of this programme was to showcase the history of the IMA from the time of its inception to its present form. The event was named“IMA Through Ages”. It started with a display of the very first course followed by the consistent endeavour of the academy to continuously produce great soldiers for the Indian Army.

Next was the Trooping of Colours which included the Kings Colours and the First Flag of the IMA. Finally, the present colour and the insignia of the IMA was brought to the Drill Square.

After the Trooping of Colours, a band display was performed by three brass bands and three pipes and drum bands. This spectacular display was presented by the 4th Battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles, 6th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles and 14th Battalion of the Mechanical Infantry.

The “IMA Through Ages” programme was overall conducted by Brig Sunil Chandra, Head of Academic Department, IMA.

The august guest was reviewing officer of the passing-out parade, Gen Vijay Kumar Singh, Chief of the Army Staff, Lieut-Gen K Surendra Nath, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Headquarters Army Training Command, Lieut-Gen Rajinder Singh Sujlana, Commandant IMA, Major-Gen Gurpal Singh Bal, Deputy Commandent and Chief Instructor of the IMA and proud parents of the passing-out course. 

Dehradun, December 18
Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli has admitted that neither the administration approves the schemes passed at board meetings nor any of the contractors is ready to work for the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC). He affirmed this during a board meeting that was convened by him here yesterday.

“We hardly receive any tenders for various works in the nigam. None of the contractors is ready to work at such a low price. Moreover, which ever agenda is passed at the board meeting it remains in the file after it is sent to the administration,” he said.

During the meeting it was disclosed that the board had approved the reconstruction of the nigam building and Rs 4 crore would be spent in the first phase. “A meeting hall, media centre, etc, will be constructed in the two-storey building in the first phase,” Chamoli stated, adding “Rs 1.5 crore have been sanctioned for the construction of old nigam building that got damaged during rainy season.” A proposal for new the nagar nigam building near the Vidhan Sabha has also been sent for approval to the administration.

The board meeting was pending since long. The date was announced after The Tribune reported that the members of Opposition parties were planning to move the court as the nigam had failed to hold the meeting.

The board has also approved 50 more persons for nala gang that makes a total of 100 who will clean streams all over the city. Other than this, 40 persons are selected for working on tractor trailer. “Four persons will work with a single trailer,” the Mayor said, adding “a team of the nala gang would be sent to each ward for seven days every month. This would help in keeping the city neat and clean.”

The board has also shown the green light to the SPML, a Delhi-based company, which has quoted the lowest price for the waste management programme. “We had a talk with the company and asked them to explain how they are going to manage things at such a low cost, they explained us and we are satisfy with their reply. Now, we will send the file to the administration for approval,” Chamoli said.

During the pre-lunch session, all councillors had a fight for 10-15 minutes relating to various issues as they disagreed with each other, but they soon came to the common issue of cleanliness. All councillors said in a single voice that the nigam had failed to take care of the drive to be taken out for keeping the city hygienic. At this the Mayor told them that if they faced any problem related to the sanitary conditions, they should give it in writing to the Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA). “All councillors need to keep a tab on the employees who are appointed for cleaning the area, and if the workers fail to provide them good services they should meet the MNA with the application against the erring persons in writing,” he said.

A demo handcart was also presented during the meeting, which was rejected by all councillors as well as the fourth-grade employees. They said the cart needed to be bigger in size and also the tyres were not perfect to drive it. At this the Mayor said the size of cart would be increased and also they would apply iron tiers to the cart.

Haridwar, December 18
While the Uttarakhand government is providing employment as well as other facilities to statehood agitators who fought for the creation of a separate state, now left-out agitators who didn’t figure in the government list for one reason or the other, have taken the agitational route to put forth their demand of further extension of the coveted agitators list.

The agitators, under the Uttarakhand Rajya Andolankari Manch, have given the state government an ultimatum till December 31, warning that if no step is taken by the state government, they will resort to an indefinite movement. They also pointed that those people involved with the BJP or the RSS seemed to have benefited the most, despite they not being actively involved in the statehood agitation during the ’80s and ’90s.

In this regard the remaining agitators today sat on a symbolic strike at Devpura lashing out at the state government’s policy on the identification of the statehood agitators.

Supporting their demand, activists of the Uttarakhand Sanyukta Sangarsh Samiti too accompanied at the one-day agitation pressing for more extension of the agitators list as in the previous lists many liable agitators weren’t inducted which has hurt the sentiments of the agitators.

Speaking at the protest venue, Dr Amar Singh, district chief, URAM, said the biased attitude of present BJP cabinet ministers had led to real agitators remaining out of the contention, while those having links with the RSS and BJP made it to the list.

“In Haridwar district several anomalies are in the agitators’ identification with real doers still not getting the due benefits, while those who were in home during the agitation time are now being honouring as state fighters which is hurting the cause for which benefits are being accrued to the state hood freedom agitators,” said Dr Singh.

Agitators also were quite perturbed on Haridwar distirct being neglected as identification process in the district has been delayed. They also fear that if the delay takes more time then the state government will take further excuse of the election code of conduct owing to panchayat elections in the district as per the directives of the High Court.

“In the previous government tenure, 600 agitators alone were given jobs in 12 districts barring Haridwar, but biased attitude is being done with the district for no fault of ours. We worked hard to include regions of Haridwar, Roorkee and Lakshar in Uttaranchal, but now we seem neglected not getting due reward of our efforts,” said JP Pandey, state president of the Manch. 

Dehradun, December 18
About 22 BJP councillors of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), who were allegedly abused and attacked by safai karamcharis on Thursday during a lunch break of the ongoing board meeting, said today that they would not let the board meeting begin until the strict action was taken against the culprits.

They also held a meeting with the BJP general secretary to discuss the topic. Though the officials asked them to concentrate on the mahayagya to be held in the Parade Ground on Sunday, the councillors put up their point in the meeting.

Councillor Amita Singh told the media that it was the Mayor who had asked them to apprise the Chief Minister regarding the incident as some of them alleged that a senior health officer was behind the act.

Talking to The Tribune, Mayor Vinod Chamoli said he asked the councillors to meet the Chief Minister, as they wanted the transfer of the health officer and it was not in his hands.

On being asked if the karamcharis had warned of going on a strike if any one of them was arrested, Amita said they were ready to face the situation.

“Residents are with us. Moreover, a few of other sanitary unions are with us, as they believe that two of the safai karamcharis have done no good to anyone,” she affirmed and added, “Let them go on strike if they want to. We can manage the sanitation ourselves. But we will not let go of the culprit. This has happened to us today. These people can cause trouble for others too if not punished now”.

Ashok Verma, Leader of the Opposition, said, “All council’ors are together. If anything wrong is done, they will stand with them. But officials need to take action only after verifying who was at fault”.

Sources said tension was going on between a few of the BJP councillors, but it was they themselves who had created chaos in the corporation.

Haridwar, December 18
Seeing the active participation and enthusiasm of Uttarakhand students in making the holy Ganga river clean, a group of Gujarat-based students too joined their counterparts today in cleaning the Ganga ghats to make sure they also made a contribution in this noble effort.

As part of the National Service Scheme, popularly known as NSS, students from Saurashtra district in Gujarat accompanied students from Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya in cleaning the Sapt Sarovar ghats.

The joint team cleaned ghats No. 15, 16 and 17 wholly, putting away polythene, garbage and other wastages, thereby giving the ghats a new clean look.

Coordinator Smita Vashisth said apart from the cleaning drive, the students were also carrying out mass awareness rallies in the city. One such rally was taken out from Haripur Kalan which went through the Saptsarvoar ghat moving alongside the Ganga ghats bringing notice of people to the pollution being done by them, thus hurting the sanctity of the holy Ganga.

She said as per the initiative of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and his ambitious campaign Sparsh Ganga Abhiyan, the volunteers were undertaking the Clean Ganga drive in which more than 150 students were associated.

A discussion forum was also organised by the Tourism Department of the university on the topic of “Uttarakhand and Ganga”, after which a question-answer format quiz was also organised.

As part of this drive and in view of the proposed polythene prohibition in the Kumbh city, Dev Sanskriti University has fully banned the usage of any polythene material in the entire campus. Shantikunj Gayatri Teerth, where hundreds of people visit daily, a similar ban has been imposed on plastic material.

Dr Pooja Sharma, Dr Jagmohan Bhatnagar, Umakant Indaulliya, Ajay Nirala, Dr Vijay Mishra, Shailendra Dubey, among others, accompanied in the cleanliness drive. 

Nainital, December 18
The Samajwadi Party (SP) is aiming for the role of a kingmaker in the next Assembly elections in Uttarakhand that are due in early 2012. The party, while knowing that it is nowhere getting a majority, wants to win a number of seats which can help it have a say in the formation of the next government in the state.

According to senior party leader Vinod Barthwal, “We have been contesting almost all seats for the past two elections in the state. But, now we want to focus on those seats where we have a greater chance of winning. The new delimitation of constituencies has provided us with some opening where we can win by working hard. We want to have a say in the formation of the next government”.

The seats being referred to by Barthwal mainly fall in the districts of Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital, Dehradun and Haridwar where the party manages to have a hold over the electorate in certain pockets in the plain areas. He pointed out that even in the past while the SP had managed to win the Haridwar parliamentary seat, its candidates had been close contestants in seats like Haldwani and Jaspur.

It is a well-known fact that the SP has not enjoyed the public support in the hill districts of the state with its supremo Mulayam Singh being vilified as a leader opposed to formation of Uttarakhand. Even in 2004, the party had won the Haridwar seat on the plank of its exclusion from the state. Barthwal, however, is confident that there is a change of mindset among the people living in the hills. He said the SP wanted the emergence of a third force in the state which had been let down badly by the Congress and the Baharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He even attacked the two parties for their unclear stance on the issue of a permanent capital for the state. He said, “There are only two parties that are clear on the issue. One is our party which wants the capital to be in Dehradun with Gairsain being a summer capital. The other party with a clear view is the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) which wants the capital to be in Gairsain. But, ironically even the UKD has not made its central office in Gairsain till now.”

The SP leader was critical of the functioning of the present state government being run by Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and said the bureaucrats were in the driving seat. “None of the officials want a posting in remote hills. They prefer going on a deputation to Delhi instead,” he claimed.

Dehradun, December 18
National president-elect, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr Vinay Agarwal criticised the Centre for undermining the Medical Council of India (MCI).Addressing a press conference, Vinay said the recent steps taken by the Government of India had eroded the independence and authority of MCI.

“The MCI after losing its independence and autonomy and coming under the direct control of the Centre is functioning in an undemocratic way by suspending the IMA office-bearers and issuing them show-cause notices,” he said on his visit to Doon.

He also criticised the Centre’s plan to start the Bachelor of Rural Health Care course. “A three-and-a-half-year course will produce substandard doctors or qualified quacks. Such a course will compromise on quality,” he said.

He also criticised the passage of the Clinical Establishment Act, 2010, which has been hurriedly passed in both Houses of Parliament without any discussion.

Patron and state coordinator and president, IMA Blood Bank Society Dr Bhim S Pandhi also criticised the government policies.

Dr DD Choudhury expressed concern over the casual attitude of government officials. “There has been an unnecessary delay on the part of bureaucrats in forwarding the Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Act to the Cabinet for further action,” he said.

Dehradun, December 18
The District Doon Hospital will go in for a massive expansion in keeping with the norms of the National Accreditation Board For Hospitals (NABH).While the issue converting the District Doon Hospital into a Medical College is still hanging fire due to unavailability of land, the hospital is carrying on with the expansion which is the only way to tackle pressure. Most of the important departments will be upgraded and new equipment added in keeping with the NABH standards.

“The operation theatre will be overhauled with complete zoning so also the trauma centre with complete monitoring equipment, blood bank and an emergency ward at the hospital,” said Dr BC Pathak, CMS, Doon Hospital.

Besides, a new microbiology department will come up near the blood bank, the Directorate of Health has already advertised for the posts of microbiologist and technician. A neuro surgery ward too has to be built as the Directorate has already received equipment.

“Funds to the tune of Rs 3.2 crore have already been sanctioned for infrastructure upgrade of the Doon Hospital and District Women’s Hospital,” said Lieut-Col (Dr) JV Rammurthi, Hospital Manager, Doon Hospital.

While to overcome the shortage of manpower, the hospital authorities are looking at contractual employment under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and even the state government.

The NABH has designed an exhaustive health care standard for hospitals and health care providers.