Radiologist refuses to take charge at Doon hospital
Dehradun, October 9
With another radiologist refusing to take charge at Doon District Hospital and the only radiologist on leave, the authorities have been forced to make temporary arrangements to attend to the patients.

Dehradun, October 9
A project, sponsored by Asian Development Bank (ADB), for laying 147-km drinking water lines and 167-km sewage pipes in the city is unlikely to meet the deadline of March, 2013. The ADB has already extended the deadline for the first phase of the project from August to March next year. Sources revealed that the ADB may scrap the project for repeated delay.

The contractors are blaming the delay on shortage of funds. Project officials are threatening them with huge penalties. Two contractors engaged for laying sewage lines, Jyoti Buildtech and Konarktech, are being replaced at this crucial juncture. It will take three months to complete the process of replacing them with new ones.

The project on paper started in August, 2010, but the actual work took off in February last year. The project has almost reached the half way mark. The pace of the project shows that it will require at least one more year to complete the remaining work.

Meanwhile, the task of repairing and carpeting roads, which were dug up before the monsoon, has not fully resumed. The residents are feeling aggrieved. Dinesh Aggarwal, Minister for Planning and Sports, said he would soon hold a meeting of ADB officials to tell them to speed up the work.

According to Project Deputy Director Anwar Khan, till date work on 80 km of drinking water lines had been completed with 30 per cent restoration work yet to be done. In case of drinking water project, only 77.5 km pipes had been laid. Executive Engineer SK Jain said the contractors would have to pay a heavy penalty for the delay.

Contractors are complaining of shortage of funds as well as the topography and climate of the city for the delay. A contractor said they had not received payment since May. ADB consultant Firoz khan blamed contractors for not keeping their documents updated, owing to which their payments had been delayed.

Additional General Manager, Vishwa Infotech, Raghunath said, “We could not work from June onward due to rain. Most of the work has to be done during night so that traffic is not disrupted. Besides, in many congested pockets of the city such as Khurbuda and Gandhi Gram, the old water, sewage and telephone lines are lying intermingled under the ground.” He assured of hiring more work force to speed up the project.

Jain said the work in congested areas had to be done in patches with one part of the road dug up and covered first. Given to this, the water pipe work in Khudbuda was completed only by 20 per cent, 10 per cent in Gandhi Gram, 15 per cent in the Municipal Corporation area and 80 per cent of the work in Dalanwala.

In the second phase, 400 km and in third phase 500 km of water lines would be laid in the city. Regarding sewage pipes, the entire Kargi zone comprising 65 per cent of the city is being covered. Anwar said 20 per cent of the remaining work was being done under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal scheme and the remaining 15 per cent would not take place due to gravitation problems. A small sewage treatment plant (STP) would be constructed here.

An STP is being constructed by the ADB in the Kargi area at a cost of Rs 57 crore. The budget for the sewage pipe work for the phase one is Rs 57 crore, while that of drinking water is Rs 40 crore. 

Dehradun, October 9
To keep a check on the number of cases undertaken by Accredited Social Health Association (ASHA) workers, who are given incentives for encouraging institutional deliveries under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), the District Women’s Hospital has made it compulsory on part of beneficiaries to present the identity proof at the time of the payment of incentive money.

Under the JSY programme, both the mother and the ANMs are given honorarium in case the latter bring expectant mothers to hospital for undertaking deliveries. But of late, the District Women’s Hospital noticed that ASHA workers bring expectant mothers who were not even residents of their areas in order to increase the number of cases.

“The ASHA workers are allocated different areas under the JSY programme under which they have to bring expectant mothers residing in their mohallas for regular checkups during pregnancy and then ensure that the delivery is undertaken at the hospital. Of late, several cases were detected where ASHA workers had registered wrong addresses. During the payment of cash to the expectant mother, anomalies often surface as they give different addresses and not the one given by ASHA workers. Therefore, we made it compulsory to present identity proof during the time of payment of incentives,” said Dr Archana Srivastav, CMS, District Women’s Hospital.

The ASHA workers are issued identity cards by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the district.

Besides, the hospital has also begun computerising the records, therefore repeated requests for the change of address becomes difficult to adhere to.

Dehradun, October 9
Four task forces and two pilot teams will be constituted in the state Forest Department to provide rights to the members of the Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers residing in the forests under the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state-level monitoring committee of the Act presided over by Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain to discuss the implementation of the said Act in the state.

It was also decided to set time frame to redress their claims, make sub-division and district-level monitoring committees more active. The state-level monitoring committee will regularly monitor the works of these committees.

Secretary, Social Welfare, MH Khan, said four mobile teams would be formed to ensure effective implementation of the Act. Each mobile team would comprise of three observers and a coordinator. Dehradun, Haridwar and Tehri will come under the Dehradun mobile team headquarters. Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pauri and Rudraprayag areas will fall under the Chamoli mobile team headquarters. Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Almora will come under the Udham Singh Nagar headquarter, while Pithoragarh, Champawat and Bageshwar will be under the Pithoragarh headquarter.

Khan further said the responsibility of the mobile teams would be to identify the place with greater possibility of organising awareness camps. The mobile teams would prepare a one-year action plan that would help redress the claims under the set time frame. The teams would also be helpful for village, subdivision and district-level committees in making forest dwellers aware of conservation of wildlife and forest biodiversity.

He said the Act also provided ownership right of forest land to STs who had been living there before December 13, 2005. Similarly, the other forest dwellers would also be given ownership right, provided they had been living there since three generations (75 years). This would also facilitate them with personal and community right for which they had to apply in the Village-Level Forest Right Committee.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Forest, S Ramaswami, Secretary, Revenue, DS Gabryal, Additional Secretary, Finance, MC Joshi, Additional Secretary Sushant Patnaik and other senior officials. 

Dehradun, October 9
With another radiologist refusing to take charge at Doon District Hospital and the only radiologist on leave, the authorities have been forced to make temporary arrangements to attend to the patients.

Since Monday, radiologists from Prem Nagar and Mussoorie have been rendering services at the hospital. Besides this, Dr Yatinder Singh, a radiologist at District Women’s Hospital, has also been asked to render services at the hospital. “These radiologists have been giving services for the past few days. But this is just a temporary arrangement. We have apprised the government of the demand for radiologists,” said Dr KC Pant, a senior physician. — TNS

Dehradun, October 9
A workshop in life skill management was held for the contestants of Miss Uttarakhand 2012 at the Madhuban Academy of Hospitality Administration and Research (MAHAR) here today.

In the workshop, the contestants were given tips on personality development as well as how to present themselves in the beauty pageant.

Director of MAHAR Hemant Kocchar said the contestants were given basic training by Seema Kapoor in various facets of personality development such as goal setting, time management and communication skills. Seema stressed on topics like team spirit, meaningful dialogue and positive thinking. The contestants were also educated about body language, right posture of standing, sitting and speaking. Kocchar said the contestants were groomed about introducing themselves and the manner of answering questions during the grand finale. They also took a round of the academy premises. — TNS

Dehradun, October 9
Students of the Dolphin (PG) Institute of Biomedical and Natural Sciences, under the aegis of the National Service Scheme (NSS), have been assigned the responsibility of preparing a report (rural) related to the annual educational status-2012 of Dehradun by the Pratham, an NGO.

A group of 30 students were trained for two days for the same. These students surveyed different areas of Dehradun. The training programme was inaugurated by Arvind Gupta, Chairman of the Dolphin institute.

Addressing the students, he said despite 66 years of Independence, the educational status in the country was pathetic. Various means like the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, midday meals and free education were being adopted to encourage parents to send their wards to the schools. However, due to social, financial or administrative shortcomings, much success had not been achieved.

He said the institute had taken an initiative to encourage the needy and deserving students to continue their higher education. Many students from orphanages had also been adopted so that they could continue their studies. He appreciated the efforts of Pratham in this regard.

Representatives from the Prahtam, Priti Tyagi, Pradeep Rahtore, Vipul and Shivani Rathore, trained 30 students of the Dolphin Institute.

Priti Tyagi said this NGO had been engaged for more than 20 years in finding ways to improve the education system and bring about relevant changes in the curriculum.

Programme officer of the NSS of the institute Gyanendra Awasthi said in the initial phase, 30 students had been sent to 15 villages of Dehradun on October 6 and 7 to know the educational status of the areas concerned.

Dehradun, October 9
The National Hydrographic Office in Dehradun will host the 32nd INCA International Congress on ‘Cartography for sustainable earth resource management’ at AMN Ghosh ONGC Auditorium here from to October 11 to 13.

Commodore Vinay Badhwar, Chairman, National Hydrographic Office, said Governor Aziz Qureshi had consented to inaugurate the congress and Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, Chief of the Naval Staff, will also grace the occasion. He said an exhibition of maps, charts, globes, models and remote sensing-related latest equipment would also be organised during the congress to encourage interested companies to showcase their products and services.

He said the sub-themes would cover important topics like GIS and remote-sensing applications, coastal geomorphology, hydrography and digital cartography towards sustainable earth resource management. Badhwar said 300 renowned scientists would present their research works in their respective fields which would prove beneficial to the cartographic community. —TNS

Dehradun, October 9
In the Lala Nemi Das Football League match being played on the Survey Ground, Dehradun, Sundarwala Boys and Doon Valley won their respective matches today.

In the first match, Sundarwala Boys defeated Chandramani 3-0.

Subham Bisht scored the first goal in the 34th minute of the match. Manoj scored the second and third goals in the 57th and the 67th minute of the match.

In the second match, Doon Valley defeated Doon Challenger 3-1. The match started with a self goal done by Ankur of Doon Valley. But Doon Valley players tried to overcome the initial loss and subsequently, Doon Valley's Gurusagar, Anurag and Thoi scored the goals thereby ensuring 3-1 win for their team.