Dehradun, December 22
The final demarcation began today at the new shopping complex at the Clock Tower where the shopkeepers uprooted from the Chakrata road are being rehabilitated even as the tenants, who had their shops on the premises of Hanuman Mandir, staged a dharna in protest against the demolition of the remaining part of the premises which caused damage to their shops as well. Vipin Nagliya, member of Mandir Samiti, has assured them that their grievances would be addressed.

The Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) has been carrying out the final demarcation for the shopkeepers. The common walls between the shops are being broken according to the new demarcations.

Meanwhile, Gurmit Sethi and her supporters tried to meet Vice-Chairman of the MDDA but he was not available. Incensed over being overlooked, they decided to approach the media and called a press conference for Friday.

Meanwhile, Madhu Chawla, who lived in a part of the premises of the temple, said: “Only a specific portion was to be demolished whereas the MDDA broke the entire building, thus smashing even that part where I had rented a house”.

She said when all the tenants went to talk to the MDDA officials, they asked them to sort out the issue with the owners instead, which in this case is the Mandir Samiti Trust. She alleged that the members of the Trust were not talking to them in clear terms.

Vipin Nagliya, a member of the Trust, said since the entire structure on the premises of the temple was dilapidated and posed a risk to the lives of those who lived or worked there, the MDDA demolished the entire building. He said the Trust would take care of all its eight tenants and he would talk to the MDDA on this particular matter.

The shopkeepers who were running their business from portions of the Bahl Watch shop in the same building have demanded their dues though the owner of Bahl Watch has been allotted a shop at the new shopping complex in exchange.

Dehradun , December 22
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Major General (Retd.) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri laid the foundation stone of Uttarakhand ayurveda university at Harrawala here today. On the occasion, terming ayurveda as repository of knowledge, he said that there was an impending need to carry out comprehensive and wide-ranging researches in the field of ayurveda.

Chief Minister Khanduri said that nature had bestowed ample natural resources on Uttarakhand in the form of precious herbs and serious efforts are needed to utilise these in the interest of society. Mentioning about “keera-jari” (Yasa gumbu), the Chief Minister said that precious herbs such as yasa gumba were illegally harvested and smuggled out of the state. While on the one hand this tendency prevented its judicious utilisation, on the other hand, the state also lost precious revenue. Quoting from the scriptures such as the Puranas, Chief Minister Khanduri said that knowledge and science were at their peak in ancient India and most of these Puranic concepts had now been proved through actual scientific applications. The Chief Minister expressed the hope that high quality research work would be taken up in Uttarakhand ayurveda university and would in turn earn name and fame. He directed the officials concerned to design and construct the new building of Uttarakhand ayurveda university in a manner so that it provided a glimpse of Dev Bhoomi Uttarakhand.

Chief Minister Khanduri said that it was only by connecting to one’s roots that service could truly be given for the sake of the country and society. He said that the state government was committed and dedicated to make Uttarakhand an ideal state in accordance with the Dev Bhoomi’s culture and traditions

Addressing a public function, Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the state government had undertaken a number of tasks in public interest by displaying exemplary will power. He said Uttarakhand was rich in biodiversity and the government hag taken several steps to develop Uttarakhand as a “Herbal state.” He said a revolving fund of Rs 2 crore had been set up to purchase the herbal produce directly from the growers. The government had also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Patanjali Institute of Swami Ramdev. He expressed the hope that Uttarakhand Ayurveda University would impart a new image and identity to the state.

On the occasion, Vice Chancellor Satyendra Prasad Mishra said that the university would encourage scholars to take up doctoral and post-doctoral researches in subjects such as biochemistry, biotechnology, phyto-chemistry, taxonomy, and bio-physics, among others, in conjunction with the subject of ayurveda. The university would be a global centre of excellence in the art and science of naturopathy medicine, including panch-karma, kshar-sutra, rasayan, marm, and ahar-vihar pathya-apathya, among others.

Those who were present on the occasion included a number of public representatives, Director Ayush Puja Bharadwaj, Jitendra Negi and Y.P. Dhyani, among others.

Dehradun, December 22
The proposed march by the striking field employees of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) 108 emergency ambulance services to the secretariat was abandoned midway due to the security arrangements at the parade ground for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s rally slated for tomorrow.

Though the striking field employees of 108 emergency ambulance services gathered at the parade ground, they were asked to vacate the ground immediately by the Police.

“As ESMA is in place, the police asked us to leave the ground or they would have arrested us. But we later submitted a memorandum to the government representative and we are still on strike,” said Roop Singh, secretary (state) of Dev Bhoomi Emergency Medical Technicians Welfare Society.

Meanwhile, the management of the GVK EMRI 108 emergency ambulance services today terminated the services of 50 striking field employees, while around 20 employees are expected to be served with termination orders tomorrow.

Despite ESMA in place, the employees failed to report for work. They also managed to run a total of 20 ambulances in Garhwal and 12 in Kumaon.

Around 5 ambulances that were made operational yesterday did not operate today for want of police security.

“The striking field employees blocked roads and even threw stones at buses in the past. As such, we had requested police escort for accompanying the ambulances in Dehradun. But since police personnel are busy with the security arrangements for Rahul Gandhi, we were not able to operate these ambulances today,” said Manish Tinku, Uttarakhand (Head) of 108 emergency ambulance services.

Dehradun, December 22
With the issues of segregation of biomedical waste and curbing hospital infection still posing problems, the Doon Hospital authorities have begun filling gaps in anticipation of the renewal of the ISO certificate in 2012.

At a meeting held today, Principal Superintendent Dr BC Pathak listed several gaps in the area of segregation of biomedical waste at source and checking hospital infection.

“We have discovered several grey areas. Among them, segregation of biomedical waste continues to pose a problem. According to the norms, the segregation of waste should be undertaken at the ward-level, but this is not being under taken. We have asked the doctors and nurses to take extra precautions, like washing hands after undertaking examination of patients, in order to reduce hospital infection,” said Dr Pathak.

To ensure that the hospital continues to follow the requirements laid down by the ISO, independent checks of the hospital can take place any time.

The hospital authorities have also zeroed on reducing manpower shortage, following medical protocol while undertaking pre-anesthetic checkup so that the patient is operation fit, biomedical waste segregation at the source at ward level, proper post-operative care, maintaining record of medico-legal cases and also carrying out proper sterilisation of instruments.

“It has come to our notice that proper medical charts of patients are not maintained in the hospital. Such shortcoming are being addressed. In medico-legal cases, the record keeping is poor. We are also planning to ensure strict implementation of protocol for taking up pre-anesthetic checkups so that patients are operation fit,” said Dr Pathak.

The ISO certificate is given to the hospitals that conform to the norms laid down by the Indian Public Health Standards. The certificate was a confirmation that the best medical practices were being followed.

Dehradun, December 22
Uttarakhand Congress MLA and former minister Amrita Rawat has accused the state BJP government of paying least attention towards the betterment of health services.

In a statement issued in Dehradun today, Amrita Rawat said a majority of hospitals in Uttarakhand were without doctors. She said even there were no pharmacists in a number of hospitals revealing the pathetic state of health services.

She said it was strange that the state government had recently directed the pharmacists to consult doctors while delivering schedule H medicines to the patients.

“The pharmacists in Uttarakhand have not even been provided with mobile phone services and thus consulting doctor for delivering schedule H medicines is practically not feasible”, she pointed out.

Rawat asserted that taking into account the poor health services in Uttarakhand, the pharmacists must be allowed to deliver schedule H medicines to the patients. Referring to the ongoing strike by the staff of 108 ambulances, Rawat said the strike had hit the emergency health services. She asked the government to consider their genuine concerns.

Dehradun , December 22
A high-level six-member delegation, headed by the president, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, visited the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun, today.

During the visit, in an interaction, ideas on research areas for cooperation in the field of forestry sciences were deliberated upon and an MOU between the Chinese Academy of Forestry and ICFRE, Dehradun, to foster cooperative relationship between the two countries on identified areas of research was signed by Prof Zhang Shongong, president, Chinese Academy of Forestry, and Dr V.K. Bahuguna, DG, ICFRE.

Dr Bahuguna, Director General, ICFRE, dwelt upon the emerging areas of mutual interest, viz impact of climate change on forest ecosystems, forest hydrology and better growth of trees with scope of bilateral cooperation.

Dr Bahuguna also highlighted the high expertise of China in the area of bamboo cultivation and technologies for bamboo products, which could be shared in an institutionalised manner for livelihood support. A detailed presentation of the activities of ICFRE, research strength and challenges was made by Dr Sanjai Srivastava. The Chinese delegation made a presentation highlighting tree breeding, ecological improvement, germ-plasm conservation and sustainable forest management as the priority areas of the Chinese Academy of Forestry.

It was decided that an umbrella action plan would be prepared under the cooperation agreement, with main emphasis on bamboo cultivation and development of industrial bamboo products and tree improvement programme of important tree species like teak, sisso, sandalwood, red sander, casurina and eucalyptus.

The modalities of the exchange expert visit, sharing of research finding and technologies and capacity building programmes were also deliberated.

In the afternoon, the CFA delegation visited various research labs and museums of the Forest Research Institute. The delegation also visited the mining reclamation work undertaken by the FRI in Maldevta.

This long-term bilateral collaborative programme has a tremendous scope for exchange of technologies in the area of bamboo improvement and product development and tree improvement programme.

Dehradun, December 22
Three youngsters, Saurab Abrol, Harshit Verma and Kuldeep Singh, were nabbed while they were attempting to break open an ATM of the SBI at Dharampur here on Tuesday night.

The threesome had tried to break open an ATMs of ICICI Bank with cutters and other tools at Jakhan and Indira Nagar on Sunday night as well. When Saurabh and Kuldeep were engaged in the task, Harshit stood outside to keep a vigil. It was then the police personnel saw Harshit standing outside the ATM and questioned a visibly baffled Harshit. When they peeped inside the ATM unit, they saw the other two boys making desperate attempt to cut open the machine.

Saurab and Harshit both worked at a call centre near Ballupur while Kuldeep ran a general store at Pathari Bagh. The three had studied together till matric.

They would go together for trips to various destinations. Both Saurabh and Harshit owe Rs 50,000 to Kuldeep as travelling expenses. As they did not earn much from the call centre, so they thought of a plan to break ATM machines. They have been booked under sections 457, 380 and 511.

Dehradun, December 22
Uttarakhand Governor and chairperson of the State Child Welfare Council Margaret Alva today spent the day with more than 300 underprivileged children at the Raj Bhawan here. Her spouse, Niranjan Alva, was also with her.

Rag pickers, orphans and children from poor families were invited to the Raj Bhawan.

They were given packed food, gifts, books and woollens.

Children from the ages of 4 to 14 presented songs and dances before the governor and were given cash prizes and gifts.

The governor said that with the help of various voluntary organisations, these children were being given certain facilities and this was an example for others to follow.

The programme was conducted by Dr. Pushpa Manas, general secretary of the Child Welfare Council.

Ram Babu Junglee entertained the children by imitating the sounds of various animals and birds.

Representatives and teachers from organisations like Akhil Bharatiya Mahila Ashram, Bal Shiksha Sadan, Sneha Doon Academy, Sahil Memorial and Shishu Grah Bal Bhavan were also present with the children.

Dehradun, December 22
An annual function of Central School, Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, took place today. Chief guest MO Garg, Director, IIP, asked the children to excel in academics and sports. He asked them to become excellent citizens and serve the society. He also praised teachers at the IIP for providing quality education to the children.

Deputy Commissioner, Central School Organisation, NS Rana, said the organisation had been making efforts to ensure allround development of children. Principal B Ram presented the annual report. He informed the gathering about the activities undertaken in the school in the past one year. He also disclosed the achievements made by students at various activities. — TNS