Dehradun, November 9
While almost all the Council of Ministers possess agricultural land and immovable assets in one form or the other worth crores, very few among them possess vehicles, reveal the list of their movable and immovable assets made available online. In all 11 Council of Ministers and the Chief Minister have made public the details of their assets.

In the list of immovable and movable assets made available on the government website, Chief Minister BC Khanduri has declared ownership of 11 bighas of agricultural land in Pauri valued at Rs 10 lakh. He also owns ancestral property valued at Rs 8 lakh at Radha Vallabh Puran village in Pauri and a flat at RK Puram, New Delhi, the market value of which has been claimed to be Rs 50 lakh. He has declared his movable assets worth Rs 47.36 lakh. Neither the Chief Minister nor his wife possess a vehicle.

The Chief Minister has also declared the movable assets (in the form of bank savings, stocks, etc) of his wife Aruna Khanduri valued at Rs 17.39 lakh.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Pant and number two in Khanduri’s cabinet has .252 hectares of agricultural land at Kharkot village in Pithorgarh district.

According to the declaration made by him, Pant also possesses a house in Haridwar valued at Rs 4.37 crore and another mansion is being constructed at Vijay Park colony in Hathibarkala. Pant also runs a pharmaceutical company jointly with his brother whose turnover has not been declared.

Another heavy weight, Minister for Agriculture Trivender Singh Rawat too owns agricultural land jointly with his mother and wife at Maletha village in Pauri valued at Rs 8 lakh. He also possesses another property at Mehuwala (0.182 hectares) valued at Rs 29 lakh. Besides, his wife Sunita Rawat also owns three plots at Pachwadoon valued at Rs 10 lakh while his mother owns a house at defence colony valued at Rs 30 lakh. Trivender Singh Rawat has also declared his liabilities in the form of a housing loan totalling Rs 11 lakh.

Minister of Social Welfare Matbar Singh Kandari together with his sons owns considerable agricultural land besides a hotel at Rishikesh and house at Dalanwala in Dehradun.

While his sons own a number of cars, he does not seem to have one in his name.

Minister of Health and Family Welfare Banshi Dhar Bhagat owns .252 hectares of agricultural land and 125x45 square feet of non-agricultural land worth Rs 30 lakh.

Surprisingly Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Diwakar Bhatt has not provided any information on immovable assets.

Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik’s immovable assets include 1.37 bighas of agricultural land in Haridwar valued at Rs lakh, a house woth Rs 17 lakh and milk business worth Rs 1.80 lakh.

The details of movable and immovable assets provided by Panchayati Raj Minister Rajender Bhandari include movable assets totalling Rs 26 lakh and immovable assets, including a piece of land and a house worth Rs 32 lakh. He has declared the liabilities of his wife in the form of a loan of Rs 21 lakh.

Similarly, Culture Minister Vijaya Barthwal possesses three vehicles and has evaluated the market value of her movable and immovable assets at Rs 80 lakh.

Sports Minister Khazan Das owns two houses in Dehradun and also has to repay a loan of Rs 14 lakh.

Labour Minister Govind Singh Bisht owns agricultural land in Haldwani and Nainital.

On the other hand, Social Welfare Minister Balwant Singh Bhoriyal like his colleague Prakash Pant is a businessman. He runs mines and mineral business. He also owns 30 nalis of land in Bageshwar. 

Nainital, November 9
India has launched an ambitious exercise to develop a network of radars across the country with the purpose of unravelling the secrets of atmospheric science that will help prove impetus to the growth and development of the country.

This was stated by a senior official of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Dr P Sanjeeva Rao, while addressing participants at the School of Radar Probing of the Atmosphere programme being organised on the Manora Peak facility of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) near Nainital yesterday.

Dr Rao said 11 stratosphere troposphere radars (ST radars) were required across the country to study a range of climate and atmosphere-related phenomena like cyclones, orography, monsoon etc.

He said three sites had been identified for putting up such radars in Cochin, Kolkata and Vishakhapatnam. Talking to TNS, he said, “The radars are being put up by different ministries and departments.”

He said the mesosphere stratosphere troposphere radars (MST radars) had been around for the past 20 years, but emphasis was now being laid on the ST radars. Efforts were being made to widen the scope of research with the help of these radars from the south to other parts of the country to look into the local problems.

Referring to the ST radar being installed at the Manora Peak, he said: “It is very crucial with regard to the weather in the central Himalayan region.”

The proposed radar is expected to become fully functional within one year and its installation is expected to be over in the next six months. He said the radar would help in understanding socio-economic issues and the monsoon.

The unique thing about the ST radar being installed at the Manora Peak is that it is for the first time that a ST radar with 200 MHz frequency is being installed in the globe and this is a major challenge undertaken by the scientist fraternity. Normally these radars are of either 400 MHz or 50 MHz.

Dehradun, November 9
Members owning allegiance to the Pradeshik Viklang Sangathan, Uttarakhand, today held a protest march to the Secretariat in support of their nine-point charter of demands.

Led by Basant Kumar Thapliyal, president of the state unit of the sangathan, the members marched to the Secretariat and handed over a memorandum addressed to the Social Welfare Minister.

They are demanding that a special drive be launched to fill 3 per cent seats reserved for the physically challenged, the budget be released under the National Handicap Term loan scheme, certain percentage of seats be reserved for physically challenged persons in the buses and a residential school be opened for the interest of hearing impaired persons, where sign language could be taught. 

Dehradun , November 9
Summer Valley School and Hilton School entered the finals of the AC Deb Memorial Invitational Inter-School Basketball Tournament played at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy here today.

In the first semi-final, Summer Valley School defeated host Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy by 48-27. Arjun was the top scorer for the winners who scored 18 baskets followed by Avinash with nine baskets. Nitin Kasana scored eight baskets for the losers.

In the second semi-finals, Hilton school got past Asian School by 59-22. Arpit Bachchan scored 19 baskets and was closely followed by Shivam Solanki who scored 18 baskets for winners. For Asian School, Salin scored 10 baskets. The final match will be played on November 10. 

Dehradun, November 9
DAV College, Dehradun, won the overall championship in the Inter-college Chess Tournament of the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University played here today.

The main campus of the university at Srinagar, Garhwal, stood second.

Keshav Kant Gairola won the first position in the individual category while Mohd Shahvaz of Srinagar campus stood second.

The following have been selected to represent the HNB Garhwal University in the North Zone Inter- university Chess championship:- Keshav Kant Gairola, Mohd Shahvaz, Ajit Kaiswal, Sumit Dass and Som Datt. Ganesh Joshi, BJP legislator from Rajpur assembly segment, gave away the prizes.