Forest guards track down rogue elephant
Dehradun, November 17
The Uttarakhand Forest Department today managed to track down the rogue tusker that had killed five persons in the Shivpuri forest range of the state in the past few months.

Dehradun, November 17
Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi today gave strong indications that the elections in Uttarakhand may take place before March 12 next year.

“All I can say is that the elections in the state will take place before March 12. I would not like to speculate on the election date right now,” said Quraishi at a press conference.

He said there were nine criteria that needed to be taken into consideration before deciding the poll date. Quraishi was here with his team to hold discussions with political parties and poll officers.

Quraishi said during the coming Assembly elections in Uttarakhand the Election Commission would be distributing photo election slips. “Uttarakahnd will become the first state where the election slip will be distributed by the Election Commission. Earlier, this activity was undertaken by political parties. Along with the election slip even kiosks set up by political parties will be banned for the coming Assembly elections. These will be set up by the Election Commission,” said Quraishi.

He said the Election Commission had first introduced this practice during the last Bihar Assembly elections and even political parties decided to abandon the practice as it allowed them to utilise the money for other purposes.

On the issue of electoral reforms Quraishi said the Election Commission had made several suggestions. These included declaring any false affidavit filed by a candidate as a criminal and electoral offence. “The matter of electoral reforms, including false declaration and whether the issue of paid news should be declared an electoral and criminal offence, will be discussed at an all-party meeting in Delhi. The Election Commission has already made these suggestions,” he said.

On the demand for the inclusion of the right to recall and the right to reject in the voting process, as demanded by Anna Hazare recently, the Chief Election Commissioner said they held a fruitful discussion with him and explained to him the pros and cons of such a move.“In my opinion the provision of right to recall will create chaos and instability in the country. Disgruntled elements may misuse it. Further, the entire practice of holding an election in a country like India is cumbersome as teachers and other government servants have to be involved in election duties and they cannot leave these (duties) every now and then. In that sense the right to reject provision is not practical,” he added.

The Chief Election Commissioner termed the campaign launched by Anna Hazare’s team exhorting voters in Hisar not to vote for the Congress as legally correct but ethically questionable.

Dehradun November 17
Work related to the repair of roads dug up due to laying of the sewerage and water pipelines and widening of 11 roundabouts in the city should be done by December 6 and the estimation of properties for the widening of Chakrata Road should be completed in the next 15 days.

These directions were passed by Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar at a meeting held with officials of the departments and Dehradun District Magistrate Dileep Jawalkar in the Secretariat today.

The Chief Secretary took serious note of the inconvenience to the residents of those areas where the roads had been damaged due to the pipeline work undertaken by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

He said the first phase of this pipeline project, which covers 60 km out of the total 260km, should be completed by December 6 instead of earlier deadline of February next year.

He said people who wanted to take additional water connection would not be charged for road cutting tax.

Till now, the repair work of eight roads have been completed. He directed to start work on the busiest roads, Raipur Road, Inder Road, Balbir Road and EC Road, on priority. He also talked of providing Rs 1.75 crore additional amount to resolve the problem of differences in parametres between the ADB and the PWD.

He directed the Nodal Officer of the ADB to keep the DM, Dehradun, and the Director, ADB, informed about the progress on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, he also fixed the time limit for the work of widening of the remaining 11 roundabouts that was also December 6.

He said five out of the total such roundabouts had already been widened. The work related to the removal of electricity poles, destruction of dilapidated buildings, felling of trees and construction of dividers on the way must be completed till then.

As far as the issue of Kanak, Lansedown and Asley Hall roundabouts, which are pending in the High Court, is concerned, he directed for a strong advocacy on the part of the state government to combat the stay order of the High Court.

For the widening of Chakrata Road, he directed to complete the assessment of properties to be removed in the next 15 days after which the payment should be made to take up the demolition of the buildings.

The meeting was attended by Commissioner, Garhwal, Ajay Nabiyal, Principle Secretary, Urban Development, Dr Ranvir Singh, Additional Secretary, PWD, Amit Negi, Additional Secretary, Urban Development, Radhika Jha and other officials.

Dehradun, November 17
The Uttarakhand Forest Department today managed to track down the rogue tusker that had killed five persons in the Shivpuri forest range of the state in the past few months.

Forest guards sighted the tusker in the Chorpani area of the Shivpuri forest range. Five persons had been killed by this elephant in the Rishikesh area of the range since July this year, following which Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden SS Sharma had issued an order for the shooting down of the tusker. However, after much of resentment raised by wildlife activists, the Chief Wildlife Warden subsequently held that the tusker would be shot only as a last resort and they would first try to tranquilise the animal. But, the Uttarakhand Forest Authorities subsequently were in a strange situation as they lost the track of the tusker.

Uttarakhand Conservator of Forests, Bhagirathi, SM Joshi said the tusker’s movement had been noticed today in the Chorpani area of the Shivpuri Forest range. He said they had sought services of three trained elephants that are expected to arrive from the Jim Corbett National Park after a few days following which forest guards would start a patrol to capture the tusker.

Vice-chairman of the Uttarakhand Forest and Environment Advisory Committee Anil Baluni said today that apart from the assistance of the Corbett elephants, consultations are also being held with the wildlife experts to deal with the rogue elephant.

Dehradun, November 17
Carman School and Indian Public School won their respective matches in the Inter-council Schools Senior Boys’ Cricket Tournament played at St Joseph’s Academy here today.

In the first match, Carman School defeated The Heritage School by 91 runs. Carman School won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 150 runs for seven wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Abhishek and Akash scored 24 runs each for the Carman team.

In reply, The Heritage School was bundled out for 59 runs in 15 overs. They lost the match by 91 runs. A Semwal took five wickets for eight runs.

In the second match, Indian Public School defeated Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy by 27 runs. Indian Public School won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 124 runs for five wickets in 20 overs. Opener Rahul Bhandari was the top scorer with 55 runs. In reply, the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy team was all out for 98 runs in 18.1 overs. Opener Shubham was the only batsman who reached double digit figure of 28 runs. Amar took two wickets for 17 runs.

Dehradun, November 17
Leader of the Opposition in the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) House Ashok Verma and councillor of Ward No. 47, Turner Road, Sanjay Kumar Gupta held a protest along with other Congress councillors on the premises of the DMC. They raised slogans against the DMC officials.

Gupta had complained of total chaos in his ward leading to insanitary conditions and absence of basic amenities in the ward. The proposals of various development projects continued to be stuck up at the official level, he had alleged.

Gupta said: “People of my ward have been struggling with sanitation problems for the past three years.”

“Soon, the election code of conduct will be enforced in the town and we will not be able to undertake development works anymore. I am worried how am I going to complete all the projects in such a short period?” he added.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli also assured him of clearance of funds for the projects of the ward soon.

The other councillors who took part in the protest included Rajkumar, Rama Gaur, Nisha Rana, Dr Bijender Pal, Vinod Kohli, Manmohan Dhanoi and Bina Bisht.

Mussoorie, November 17
A fresh proposal for the widening of a road towards Rama Devi Inter-College is being met with resistance from several quarters here. The amount for the project was earlier sanctioned for the widening of the road from Mussoorie Girls Inter-College to Picture Palace Road.

The staff and owners of the schools around the proposed area have raised objections against the plan of the Municipal Council.

The MC on January 25, 2011, had cleared the project of widening of the road from Mussoorie Girls Inter-College to Picture Palace for which an estimated amount of Rs 10.35 lakh had been sanctioned.

Thereafter, an agreement with the contractor in this regard was signed and an order to start the work was issued but not an inch of the road was widened.

When the MC questioned the contractor, he said the project had to be stalled due to the objections raised by private property owners whose land was also falling under the ambit of the project.

Subsequently, ward member of the area Virendar Rawat, in his letter written to the MC, stated that the amount sanctioned for the widening of the road should be transferred to another project of road leading to Rama Devi Inter-College which was adjacent to the previous project, as per the demand of the people of the area.

The proposal to shift the project amount was once again brought up at the MC board meeting and was passed unanimously.

However, it was revealed in a Tribune investigation that local residents, including the staff and members of the Rama Devi Inter-College Association along with the owners of Greenfield School whose property was in the area of the project, had never sought for the widening of the road.

Principal of Rama Devi School Anuj Tayal said the need of widening of the road leading to Rama Devi Inter-College did not arise as the vehicles were unable to ply further due to the steps constructed by the MC a few years back to stop the excess of the vehicular movement on the road.

Anuj Tayal said the need of the widening of the road leading to Rama Devi College was beyond comprehension as the vehicles were unable to ply further due to the steps constructed by the MC.

The owner of Greenfield School also said they had opposed the previous proposal of widening of the road and if any such proposal was initiated again, it would be met with stiff opposition.

Executive officer Rohitash Sharma skirted the issue by saying that he was busy elsewhere.

MC president OP Uniyal did not respond even after repeated calls.

Dehradun, November 17
Doon University will organise a two-day national meeting from today. The meeting is being organised jointly by the department of economics, school of social sciences and school of management of the university.

The theme of the seminar is “India: Two Decades of Economic Liberalisation- Growth and Governance”. The national seminar will be inaugurated by Prof GK Chadha, former Vice Chancellor, JNU, and currently the president of South Asian University.

Leading academicians, senior bureaucrats and corporate leaders will be addressing the technical sessions and selected technical papers will be presented during each session for a focused debate.

A souvenir will also be brought out, which will contain important data highlighting the issues of growth and governance during the two decades of liberalisation. The significance of the theme selected for the seminar is widely accepted as an important contextual issue facing the Indian Economy.

Dehradun, November 17
Chief Secretary Subash Kumar yesterday asked officials to begin looking for additional land for the construction of the proposed Doon Medical College. He asked the officials to hold talks for the transfer of land on the old jail premises (Haridwar road) that is in the possession of the Law Department.

At a meeting held at the Secretariat, Subash Kumar also asked the officials to look for alternative land that could be given in exchange to the Law Department.

He also stressed on the need for constructing residential premises for faculty members and nurses of Srinagar Medical College at Chauras Centre of the College.

During the meeting, Principal Secretary, medical education, Vinita Kumar said the department had already received no objection for establishing 10 nursing colleges in the state.

Dehradun, November 17
Delhi University and Himachal Pradesh University won their respective matches in the North Zone Inter-University Cricket Tournament being organised by Uttarakhand Technical University here today.

In the first match, Delhi University defeated the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, by nine wickets.

University of Petroleum Studies and Energy Studies won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored a total of 98 runs all out in 30.1 overs. Opener Deepak Uniyal was the highest scorer with 35 runs. Lokender of Delhi University took three wickets for 19 runs.

In reply, Delhi University scored 99 runs at the loss of a single wicket in 13.4 overs to win the match by nine wickets. Opener Gaurav scored a breezy unbeaten 50 runs while Hemant Singh scored unbeaten 39 runs.

In the second match, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, defeated Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, by 44 runs. Himachal Pradesh University team won the toss and batting first, they scored 270 runs for nine wickets in their allotted 40 overs. Opener Akash Sharma scored 63 runs while Ajay Mohan and Abhinav Guleria scored 39 and 37 runs, respectively. Sukhmeet Singh took four wickets for 37 runs for the Ludhiana boys.

In reply, PAU team could reach 226 runs for nine wickets in 40 overs. Openers Upkardeep with 35 and Hitesh with 45 runs, respectively, were the top scorers.

Rohit Kolish took three wickets for 33 runs for the Himachal Pradesh team.

Dehradun, November 17
The 50th Annual Athletics Meet and a PT Display was held at Cambrian Hall School today.

Board of Trustee members Krishan Shamsher and JB Rana and acting Principle of the school Dr Uniyal were present on the occasion. Junior and senior students participated in relay race. Students of sub-junior classes participated in basketball race, Alphabet race and get ready for picnic.

Pawan Bhardwaj was declared the Best Boy Athelete and Saloni the Best Girl athlete.