Over 60 villagers attend legal awareness camp by petro varsity 
Dehradun, February 22
"Be the change you want to see. The government can introduce garbage disposal systems but unless the residents are not disciplined enough to use them properly, we can't make a difference," said Megh Singh, sarpanch of Kandoli village, who was the first to witness the initiative of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) for legal awareness through the newly established Legal Aid Clinic (LAC) on its campus.

Haridwar youths join hands to highlight their issues
Haridwar, February 22
Youths in Haridwar have come together to highlight issues concerning them and try to resolve these. Like-minded youths from across the district have formed the Uttarakhand Youth Forum, a voluntarily organisation, which will highlight the issues like unemployment, education, domicile and others confronting the youth today. The forum members will hold complaint redress camps and try to provide expert advice to the needy.

Haridwar, February 22
After Himachal Pradesh's action of cancelling the land deed lease, another problem seems to be confronting yog guru Swami Ramdev.

Villagers and farmers living in the vicinity of Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Lakshar, have alleged that the contaminated and polluted water coming out from the factory is having a negative impact on their crops.

Farmers also claim that many animals have died after drinking the polluted water in the recent past.

Farmers have also reported this matter to the district administration, Food and Supplies Department and today urged Swami Ramdev to either stop this toxic water from reaching their agricultural fields, or face farmers' agitation in the coming days.

Under the aegis of Uttarakhand Farmers' and Agricultural Field Union, farmers have categorically made it clear that since the Park was founded in 2010, they had been facing a similar problem. The polluted water flow was temporarily stopped but a permanent solution was never found.

UFAFU district conveyor Ram Kumar Walia demanded instant solution of this problem, compensation to the affected farmers and a written assurance that a similar situation would not arise in the future. He said that if the district administration and the herbal park authorities did not pay heed to this aspect, then they will be forced to take the agitation route, and instead of working in agro fields, farmers will be on roads.

Meanwhile, refuting the claims of the farmers, Acharya Balkrishan, Managing Director of Patanjali Food Park, said that the allegations of farmers were baseless and no polluted or toxic water was flowing into nearby agricultural fields.

Balkrishan added that may be due to heavy rain in the past few days, the samples taken by the Pollution Control Board team showed polluted water coming from the herbal park plant. "There is no truth in the farmers claims. The samples failed because they were taken during rainy days when nearby polluted water may have got mixed. We are open to any such sample process again when there is no rain. This will clear all doubts as we are a socially responsible trust and adhere to all the standards, be it quality or safety in our all units," said Balkrishan.

Dehradun, February 22
"Be the change you want to see. The government can introduce garbage disposal systems but unless the residents are not disciplined enough to use them properly, we can't make a difference," said Megh Singh, sarpanch of Kandoli village, who was the first to witness the initiative of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) for legal awareness through the newly established Legal Aid Clinic (LAC) on its campus.

The UPES has taken the initiative to start the LAC, which has been made mandatory for all law colleges by the Bar Council of India with the objective of spreading legal awareness, especially among the less privileged communities.

The LAC team comprising 30 student volunteers, along with faculty advisers from the UPES, participated in the event which included street plays and interactive sessions with villagers.

The LAC in the UPES will not only take up the task of spreading legal awareness but is also determined to resolve various legal issues faced by villagers around the university campus.

Residents of four-five villages around the campus would be encouraged to make full use of this facility specially created for their benefit, according to a prèss release of the university.

This camp, the very first one held under the aegis of the LAC, saw the participation of 60-70 villagers. Through street plays, the LAC team depicted various problems that a woman faces from birth to death such as pre-natal diagnosis for sex determination, the issues of dowry, domestic violence, child labour, gender-based discrimination, child marriage etc.

The aim of these plays was to make the women aware of the fundamental rights that they have at different stages of their lives. After the plays, the clinic also conducted an interactive session with the audience where Shradha Baranwal (faculty adviser), Shakko Mukherjee (convener), Shivanku Bhatt (co-convener), Dr Ramesh Kumar (faculty adviser) and other members of the LAC attempted to get themselves appraised on various problems being faced by the local population. 

Haridwar, February 22
Youths in Haridwar have come together to highlight issues concerning them and try to resolve these. Like-minded youths from across the district have formed the Uttarakhand Youth Forum, a voluntarily organisation, which will highlight the issues like unemployment, education, domicile and others confronting the youth today. The forum members will hold complaint redress camps and try to provide expert advice to the needy.

Later the forum will form its units in all 13 districts of Uttarakhand. It will also cover rural and urban areas in all the areas and lay stress on generating awareness about social causes.

Ram Vishal Dev, founder of the forum, said the youths would be drawn towards agriculture, horticulture, small scale handicraft trade and sports in the rural area.

Shama Sabrin, state chief of the women wing of the forum, stressed on raising women-related issues of hill and far-flung rural areas of the state.

“Though the state has a good female literacy rate, girls living a tough life in rural and hill areas are not able to excel compared to those living in metropolitan cities. The forum will try to raise their confidence level and try to provide them personality enhancing skills as well as psychological boost,” said Sabrin, who hails from Piran Kaliyar.

The forum would also raise the issue of non-adherence to norms by industrial firms at the Integrated Industrial Estate-SIDCUL at Roshanabad.

The forum members will meet Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat and Uttarakhand Labour Minister Harish Chandra Durgapal to ensure 70 per cent of jobs to local residents. The state president of the forum, Ashok Chauhan, said the interested youths may contact the forum, which is a non-political entity, for redress of their problems. 

Haridwar, February 22
Security arrangements in the district have been tightened up in the wake of the Hyderabad bomb blasts yesterday evening with an alert being sounded in the district by the police administration.

Braham Kund, Har-ki-Pauri, has been cordoned off with a round-the-clock checking being done at the core mela zone.

A special bomb disposal squad has already been put at Har-ki-Pauri in view of thousands of pilgrims, who visit this Ganga ghat.

Security arrangements have also been tightened up at revered shrines of Mata Mansa Devi and Mata Chandi Devi besides Daksh Prajapati Mahadev temple and Mayapur Devi temple.

Talking to The Tribune, SP Kiran Lal Shah said a meeting was held in this regard yesterday by SSP Arun Mohan Joshi in which the serial blasts in Hyderabad were analysed.

Bomb disposal, sniffer dogs and cavalry squads, along with intelligence wings, have been briefed in this regard. Railway station, bus stand and other prominent spots in the city are being monitored round the clock by police patrol teams. Also, functioning of CCTV cameras installed in various parts of the city is being analysed and defunct ones are being repaired.

Dehradun, February 22
Following the Hyderabad blasts, Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers today burnt an effigy of terrorism at DAV (PG) College in Dehradun.

Addressing the workers, district convener of the ABVP Pradeep Kumar accused the UPA government at the Centre of going soft on terrorism.

He said the Centre was using intelligence agencies to serve their political purposes rather than safeguarding the country against terror attacks.

Mahesh Jagudi, Sanket Nautiyal, Rakesh Negi, Sidhartha Negi and Paras Goyal were prominent among the protesters.

Dehradun, February 22
State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh has expressed her displeasure at the declining credit ratio of banks in the state. She called upon the banks to take risks while disbursing loans to poorer sections of the society.

She was speaking at the inauguration function of the 44th state level bankers committee meeting held here today.

She said the credit ration of the banks in the state had dropped to 56 per cent whereas as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, it should not be less that 60 per cent. She further said banks in South India had better credit ratio than in the north.

She called upon the banks to provide better banking facilities to the rural masses and give credit to the poor.

She said cumbersome processes and security requirements deter the poor and rural masses from availing the credit facilities of the banks.

She said banks could play a greater role in providing self-employment and stopping migrations from the hill areas.

B Sriram, Deputy General Manager of the State Bank of India, said every effort would be made to increase the credit ratio above 55 per cent in the current year. 

Dehradun, February 22
Renowned Mohiniyattam dancer Padmashree Bharti Shivaji performed at the Thimayya Auditorium at Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) here today.

Students of Unison Girls School, Purukul Youth Development Society, Cambrian Hall and Welham Girls School were also present. Col HS Bainsla, Commandant, RIMC, was the chief guest for the evening. He thanked Bharti for sparing her valuable time and accepting to perform in front of the students from various prestigious institutions of the valley.

The entire programme was conducted under the aegis of SpicMacay, Dehradun chapter. Others present were Lt- Col Ambarish Tewari, Administrative Officer, RIMC, Mr CS Vishwakarama, vice-principal, RIMC, Wing Commander SK Thapliyal, Major R Richardson, Assistant Administrative Officer, RIMC, Lt Pinku Heikham and PK Sharma.

Bharti is a name synonymous with Mohiniyattam, an exquisite and graceful dance form of Kerala. She has been performing this dance since 1972 and has visited many foreign nations in an effort to reestablish the dance form in the world. She was awarded one of India’s highest civilian awards, ‘Padmashree’, for her tireless efforts, devotion and commitment to the cause of Mohiniyattam.

Haridwar, February 22
Cultural and co-curricular activities marked the annual function of Sanskriti School here today.

Inaugurating the function, local MLA Madan Kaushik urged the school management and teachers to inculcate moral values in students.

Dehradun, February 22
The Pratap section of the RIMC lifted the Inter-section Shooting Trophy here today.

Shooting at the RIMC has had a rich history with many cadets bringing laurels to the college at the national level. It aims at enhancing the concentration power of the cadets and gives them insight into the world of professional shooting.

The competition was held in two categories: 177 air Rifle and .22 prone.

In the .177 category, Cadet Mani Shankar Raj won a gold medal (300/400), followed by Cadet Neeraj Maurya (293/400) and Cadet Shivtej Sawant (261/400).

In .22 prone, Cadet Captain Ligang Kobing won a gold medal with a score of 171/300. Cadet Chetan Kumar bagged the silver medal with a score of 167/300, followed by Cadet Divyaraj Singh Tomar (162/300). The prize for the most upcoming shooter was bagged by Cadet Suresh Kumar in .22 prone and Cadet L Sailo in .177 air rifle. The overall section standings were as follows:

Pratap Section-1, Ranjit Section-II, Shivaji and Chandragupta Section-III.

Brig BS Shekhawat, Commander, 116 Infantry Brigade, was the chief guest. He was impressed by the standard of shooting at the RIMC and motivated the cadets to continue the same in their defence careers as shooting was one of the most important aspects in the life of an officer.

Col HS Bainsla, SM, Commandant, RIMC, Lt Col Ambarish Tewari, Administrative Officer, RIMC, CS Vishwakarama and Vice-Principal, RIMC, Wing Commander SK Thapliyal were present on the occasion.