Dehradun, March 14
Workers and leaders of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) gheraoed the Vidhan Sabha on the first day of the Budget session by taking out a rally from the Gandhi Park to the Vidhan Sabha here today.

District president NK Gusai and woman leader Pramila Rawat managed to reach the top of the barricade and got injured, along with many others, when the police tried to desist them with mild lathi-charge. Block vice-president from Haldwani Anand Kishore Kandpal sustained maximum injuries.

Party president Trivender Singh Panwar deprecated the state government saying that the state had badly failed in arresting unemployment in the state, implementing compulsion of knowledge of local languages for the government jobs of C and D categories and releasing the Government Order with regard to the annulment of the condtion of certificate of permanent residence.

Seeking declaration of the Gaumukh-Uttarkashi stretch as eco-zone, he demanded jobs for the unemployed in various corporations, changes in the Forest Act to make it more flexible for development, enforcement of stringent land laws, solution of long-pending problems of government employees and constitution of selection commission to bring transparency in the selection of category C and D jobs.

While reiterating their stand to shift the capital to Gairsain and restart the closed down hydro-projects in the state, he said, “In matters like Citurgia case, distribution of small hydro-power projects and gas power plant, Kashipur, where the role of the state government is dubious, a CBI inquiry must be ordered”.

Party patron Kashi Singh Aeri, leader of Vidhan Mandal Pushpesh Tripathi, vice-president Narender Singh Rawat, general secretary Shish Pal Bisht, president of the Panchyat Cell Lalit Bisht, president of the youth wing Sunil Bisht, president of the technical wing JP Godiyal, women leaders Devi Thapa and Anita Saha participated in the rally.

Dehradun, March 14
With the commencement of the Budget session of the Utarakhand state Assembly today, traffic problems and inconvenience for residents of Dehradun have also started.

The police has barricaded Shastri Nagar, Rispana Bridge, Praghati Vihar and tri-junction of the Vidhan Sabha to stop political parties and other organisations from gheraoing the Assembly. And traffic diversions have been made according to this.

Thus, people residing in Defence Colony, Shastri Nagar, Nehru Colony, Haridwar bypass, Jogiwala, Ajabpur and Mothrowala are the most affected with this. The residents have to travel a very long way to reach their preferred destination in the city.

Today several motorists and pedestrians were seen returning from the barricaded area. They had to follow narrow lanes, long routes and face a lot of inconvenience to reach their destination.

Besides this, the whole city reels under traffic jams during the sessions. School and college students are also a harried lot. Most affected are students who are taking the CBSE, ICSE and Uttarakhand Board examinations.

Several organisations of the areas affected have submitted their protest with the Chief Minister, Dehradun District Magistrate (DM), DGP and SSP in this regard.

“We are harassed, inconvenienced and tortured due to the ongoing Vidhan Sabha session. Various organisations have erected their tents on the road leading to Defence Colony and the occupants of the tents are bold enough to harrass local residents,” Dr BK Nautiyal of the Intellectual and Technocrats’ Guild of India said in his letter to the DM.

The Association of Physicians of India, Dehradun branch, has also written a letter to the DM to bring to light the problem being faced by people due to processions/dharnas.

Owing to these dharnas, traffic gets disordered which primarily affects schoolgoing students, patients and those going for important work. A place should be marked where all these processions can be held, the letter said.

Sainik Co-Operative Housing Society Limited has described the problem as horrifying, nightmarish experience and torture by so-called andolandkaris settled near the Vidhan Sabha.

On the other hand, the police has chalked out a plan to divert the traffic and appealed to the residents not to use the barricaded area between 12:30 pm to 2 pm to avoid any hassles.

It has also appealed to all political parties and agitators to use less time in their protest and hold their programmes in a peaceful manner.

Dehradun, March 14
Protesting against the non-fulfilment of their demands, private and government medical staff went on a strike today, paralysing medical services in the state. Nurses too stepped up their agitation and were on duty for one shift only.

More than 1,000 doctors gathered at the Gandhi Park in the morning where office-bearers of the Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS) and the Indian Medical Association (Uttarakhand) addressed the gathering.

The doctors are demanding the implementation of the Security Act, cadre distribution to medical officials and the implementation of the Dynamic Assured Career Progression Scheme (DACP).

“From time to time the government had been feeding us on empty assurances and in the interests of patients we had toned down our stir, but to no avail. We were repeatedly assured that the Security Act would be implemented in the state, but nothing positive has come about,” said Dr SD Joshi, president, PMHS.

He said as far as the implementation of the DACP went, the issue had been hanging fire for the few years past, even when the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi had already implemented it. “The government is needlessly sitting on the issue of cadre distribution to the remaining doctors,” he said.

Later, the doctors took out a rally from the Gandhi Park to the Raj Bhawan and submitted a memorandum to the Governor who assured them of full cooperation.

“In the public interest, we will go back to work tomorrow. We have again given a month’s time to the government to act, otherwise we will again launch a statewide agitation,” said Dr Ajit Gairola, district president of the Indian Medical Association.

Meanwhile, the nurses, too, protested against the non-fulfilment of their demands. “We had earlier called off our agitation slated for March 3 to 7 and this phase of our agitation started today, said Laxmi Punetha, media adviser to the Uttarakhand Nurses Service Association.

All the nurses in the combined hospitals, base hospitals, female hospitals and district hospitals in the state were on duty for one shift.

With doctors taking part in the agitation, the OPDs wore a desolate look. However, the emergency services were running as usual. This is the first time that the private doctors too took to the streets and the impact was felt all over the state, as almost all the health establishments were shut.

Haridwar: Doctors went on a one-day strike in the district though emergency services ran normally.

Pointing out that the incidents of violence against the doctor fraternity are on the rise, doctors from both the governmental and private sectors stayed away from medical service as a symbolic protest.

Dr Rajesh Gupta, chief of the Indian Medical Association, Haridwar, said this insecurity among the doctors was affecting their working.

“In several states like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Security Act is already in place but the Uttarakhand Government seems to be dilly-dallying on this issue, forcing us to go on a strike” said Dr Sanjay Shah.

Dehradun, March 14
A 28-year-old single mother committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan of her house at Mothrowala this morning, the police said. The cops have not done the postmortem yet as her family couldn’t be traced. She has left behind a seven-year-old daughter who was staying with her.

Though the police couldn’t ascertain the reason of the death, sources said she committed suicide due to family tension. After a divorce from her first marriage, she had been staying separated even from her second husband.

Victim Asha, a nurse at Vaisha Nursing Home, had a girl from her first marriage and the daughter was staying with her. The cops are trying to contact her husband.

According to Navneet Bhullar, Circle Officer, the woman had taken the step this morning when her daughter was out by bolting the door from inside. The matter came to light when neighbours knocked the door and there was no response from inside. They peeped inside the house from a window and saw her hanging. The police was informed of the matter.

The cops did the panchnama. However, the postmortem was not done yet. The CO said no suicide note or anything, which could ascertain the motive behind the suicide, could be found. “We are trying to contact the family and her husband before proceeding further,” he added. 

Dehradun, March 14
Members of the Yog Prashikshit Society took out a rally from the Gandhi Park in support of their demands here yesterday.

The protestors are demanding employment in government schools and other government departments as yoga teachers.

District general secretary of the society Arvind Rana said, “Despite of the fact that we have given a memorandum to the administration and gone on an indefinite fast in the past, the state government has not initiated any scheme or plan for yoga trained teachers”.

Haridwar, March 14
Terming national language Hindi as the one that is inscribed on the souls of Indians, experts in the language participated in a “National language coordination convention” held at Ranipur, BHEL, Haridwar.

Language experts-cum-coordinators from various public sector undertakings, banking sector and insurance companies took part in various sessions of the convention and competitions, including an essay-writing contest and a quiz, which were held on the sidelines of the convention.

At the inaugural session of the convention, chief guest was KR Gupta, General Manager (Engineering), BHEL. Gupta said Hindi was the mother language of billions of people residing in India and it was in their hearts and souls. “No one should need to ask oneself to either speak, write and learn or work in Hindi as it’s our national language,” said Gupta.

Informing the convention about an initiative of the Central Government, which aimed at making sure the national language was used in Union Government offices, public sector undertakings, banks and insurance companies, Gupta said if despite this they were unable to achieve the target to promote the usage of Hindi language, then they definitely had to change their thinking.

A multimedia presentation was also made at the session for government employees. It showed the right methodology of the reports to be filed in Hindi language to the Union Home Ministry. Shriniwas Joshi, Additional Manager (Languages), and Joint Secretary Narakash urged all the participants to contribute their bit in achieving the desired results in the programme, which had been launched with the aim of promoting the usage of the “raj bhasha” in government offices.

Discussions on various other aspects of the national language were also held, particularly on the problems faced by the authorities concerned in the implementation of the Hindi language programme.

Haridwar, March 14
The latest report by the Population-Based Cancer Registry, which is functioning under the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), has put the rate of the growth of cancer at 1.2 per cent per year.

It was imperative to generate mass awareness so as to lessen the rate and make sure cancer was cured by detection in the initial stage itself.

Taking this concept ahead, Haridwar-based Rotarians have initiated a long-term cancer awareness campaign to generate awareness among the people and provide a free-of-cost cancer detection facility, particularly for women who are suffering from breast cancer and cervical cancer mostly due to a lack of awareness, inadequate health care and social stigma.

The Rotary Club of Kankhal is dedicated to this aspect and its members organise free medical checkups for poor people.

Project Chairman Rakesh Aggarwal said, “This awareness campaign is an attempt to lessen the cause of cancer by making people aware of its causes. Most of the people get medical treatment at a later stage when the chances of cure are very less, but if one gets diagnosed at an early stage, the chances are increased”.

He added that due to awareness, western countries had lessened the breast cancer affected patients graph, while in India such cases were increasing owing to lack of awareness among women.

The Kankhal Rotarians have tied up with New Delhi-based “Cancer Roko”, a NGO which specialises in high-tech medical equipments for thedetection of cancer-affected patients. A specialised team of doctors, medical support staff with a specialised van having machines and medical lab to diagnose cervical cancer, cardiovascular diseases and TB is provided whenever a diagnostic camp is held in Haridwar.

Shabnam Praveen, a doctor associated with the NGO, while speaking to The Tribune, said, “India has almost 1/4th of total cervical cancer patients in the world as cases are diagnosed at a later stage when radiotherapy becomes imperative and survival chances are bleak. For a growing economy like ours, it is quite sad that a large percentage of women and girls are suffering from pre-cancerous lesions, lack of access to healthcare, education and information about testing treatment of these lesions which make them eve more vulnerable to breast and cervical cancer”.

The Rotarians are providing free check-up facility for all, and free medical prescription is also given to the poor people. If the test report of any poor patient comes positive, aid and financial assistance is provided to the patient.

“This is a social initiative which caters to that section which is getting slowly affected with deadly cancer, but with prior information, precaution and early diagnosis many lives can be saved. Social work like these are not only laudable, appreciable, but should also be supported,” said Pankaj Sehgal, Chairman, Commercial Tax Advisory Committee, Uttarakhand, at the inauguration of the free cancer diagnostic camp.

Dehradun, March 14
There has been a marked improvement in the percentage of blood donations in Uttarakhand. The state has achieved a target of 73 per cent blood donations through voluntary means.

However, a lot of groundwork needs to be done before voluntary blood donation activity picks up in hill districts of the state. “For 2010-2011, our target is at least 70,000 units of blood that will be collected through voluntary blood donation camps,” said Additional Director, Uttarakhand State Aids Control Society (USACS), Dr PC Kapri. He was speaking at a workshop organised by USACS held at a hotel here on Friday.

“As of now, the requirement of blood is around 70,000-80,000 units in the state and there is always a probability that the demand will rise when dengue-hit patients begin thronging government hospitals for treatment,” he added.

Programme Officer, National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), Vinita Srivastav said several camps were being organised in the city to increase awareness about blood donation. “We are encouraging women and social workers to donate blood,” she said.

Motivator with the Rotary Blood Bank Tejinder Singh said the culture of voluntary donation should be strengthened as there was always a shortage of blood in the country. “We need to understand the psyche and generate awareness that donations at regular intervals (at least thrice a year) boosts one’s immunity,” said Tejinder.

She also stressed on making thalassemia testing mandatory, so that the problem was detected as early as possible, as such patients required several units of blood. Earlier, Joint Director of blood safety Meenakshi Uniyal urged the youth to participate in blood donation camps. 

Dehradun, March 14
“Today is the age of computers, television, mobile phones, I-pads, I-pods and many more gadgets that have distracted the life of a person, leaving one just with bookish knowledge about dance,” said dancer Sonal Mansingh.

Sonal was in the state capital to perform naatya-katha at a function of Him Jyoti School.

Sharing her feelings with The Tribune, she said, “Dance is not just movement, as monkeys can dance too. It should speak about the issues concerning society and people at large. It is a medium through which one can present the viewpoint of those who often do not get a platform to speak,” said the Padma Bhushan awardee.

“At the peak of my career, when I met with a serious car accident and the doctors told me that I could not dance any more, it did not deter me. It was my indomitable will that brought me back to my feet again,” she said.

Exponent of Bharatnatyam and Odissi dance, Sonal Mansingh is also an expert in Kuchipudi and Chhau dance, along with classical music.

On being asked what inspires her in preparing dance forms, she stated that she got the inspiration from each and everything surrounding her. “It is not just a single person who inspires me. I get motivated from trees, birds, animals, nature, environment etc. Dancers must have love for everything as dance is a rare confluence of all,” she added.

Speaking about the naatya-katha, the danseuse said, “It is an ancient form of narrative art that was widely prevalent in every part of the country. ‘Katha’ literally means ‘to narrate’ in Sanskrit”.

A multifaceted personality, who is known as a dancer, philosopher, social reformer, thinker, choreographer and teacher, is accredited with many awards. She has also won Nritya Choodamani (1985), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1986), Bhai Veer Singh International Award (1990), Rajiv Gandhi International Award (1991) and Medals of Friendship from State Council of Vietnam and Cuba. 

Dehradun, March 14
Himalayan Cricket Club (B) beat Doon Combined by 40 runs in a twenty20 match of the Uttarakhand Cup Beehive Challenger League at the Matawala Bagh here today.

Himalayan Cricket Club (B), after deciding to bat first, set a target of 144 runs for seven wickets in 20 overs. Rajesh (43), Shristi (23), Ayush (21) and Sandeep (21) scored mainly for the team.

Vaibhav Panwar of Doon Club got three wickets.