Officials told to take quick action in cases concerning children
Dehradun, May 28
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam convened a meeting of Childline Consultant Committee today. He instructed Departments of Child Labour, Education, Health and Child Development to ensure speedy action on the matters coming to them with regard to children. He also directed Chief Education Officer and all block-level education officials to publicise the Childline Helpline number 1098 in their Sarv Shiksha campaigns. He directed SP (Rural), Mamta Vohra, to provide contact numbers of all the police stations and police inspectors to all the childline centres. He directed them to constitute a committee to connect the beggar children with education and provide them shelter in children's homes. He said he expected support from SSP, Mukhya Nagar

Dehradun, May 28
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam held a meeting with members of the Sahastardhara Tourism Destination Management Coordination Committee and officials of the departments concerned to make arrangements at Sahastardhara in view of the tourist season.

Representatives of the public also participated in the meeting.

The DM said the Sahastardhara tourist spot was now under control of the Sahastardhara Tourism Destination Management Coordination Committee. DM directed the committee members to prepare a list of works to be done at the tourist spot and give an estimate of funds to him. He also instructed the committee to employ educated youngsters in the committee office.

Purushottam said efforts should be made to make Sahastardhara an international tourism spot. He instructed the officials to make adequate arrangements so that tourists did not face any inconvenience.

He instructed the executive engineer, Jal Sansthan, to make proper arrangements of water tanks and water taps and sufficient supply of drinking water for the tourists.

As the local people complained of dysfunctional street lights, the DM directed the District Tourism Officer, YS Gangvar, to get the lights in order. He also instructed Gangvar to hand over the 25-seater toilet complex to the committee and to mark the parking rates outside the parking zones.

Gangvar apprised Purushottam about the approval taken from the Irigation Department about the task of allotment of ponds to be given to the committee. Earlier, it was handled by 26 members of the gram panchayat who would allot ponds for irrigation purposes.

Gangvar said the allotment fee had been increased to Rs 1,500 for big ponds and Rs 1,000 for small ponds per month.

Dehradun, May 28
Four members of a marriage party were killed when a TATA mini-truck they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Nainital district today. The incident happened at Oklakhand, about 100 km from Nainital district headquarters, around 11 am today.

The 20-member marriage party was travelling to Haldwani from Pipalpani when at Oklakhand the driver lost control over the mini-truck and it fell into the deep gorge. Four persons were killed on the spot, while 12 were injured.

Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna have expressed grief over the deaths in the road mishap. They have prayed for the early recovery of the injured and peace to the departed soul. The Chief Minister has also given directions for the best of medical assistance to the injured persons.

Dehradun, May 28
DGP Satyavrat Bansal has directed the state police to handle cases of crime again women on priority. He has asked for details of such cases, especially rape, from every district. Bansal told The Tribune said, “The job of the police is not only to investigate and arrest the accused but also to pursue the matter in court by furnishing evidence and other related matter to provide justice to victims. I have directed circle officers of all districts to furnish the data about the number of rape cases and the conviction rate in such cases.”

He expressed satisfaction that a number of workshops organised on the theme of method of investigation had proved useful. “Whether in cases related to women or other matters, now investigations are being done with scientific methods, including DNA profiling and taking blood samples. The police can crack cases swifter than earlier and with better handling in court the conviction rate will also rise.”

He is also happy that the anti-human trafficking units too have begun to deliver. Bansal said, “The anti-human trafficking units are active now. In one case in Haridwar the unit arrested the accused but it extended its investigation to gather information about the entire network of the gang involved in trafficking of the victim girl. This way the state police will be able to break the network of the gang, which is involved in trafficking of innocent girls.”

The DGP said he was taking updates from Women Cells and the Women Helpline throughout the state. “I have given directions for tracking girls and women who have gone missing in the state. The police will have to bring such cases to conclusion to find out whether the missing girls and women have returned home, got married, working somewhere or have died. The police till now, after registering cases regarding missing persons, did not bother to pursue these. In cases related to women the gravity increases manifold as they could be lured into flesh trade or could be trafficked,” he added.

Dehradun, May 28
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam convened a meeting of Childline Consultant Committee today. He instructed Departments of Child Labour, Education, Health and Child Development to ensure speedy action on the matters coming to them with regard to children. He also directed Chief Education Officer and all block-level education officials to publicise the Childline Helpline number 1098 in their Sarv Shiksha campaigns. He directed SP (Rural), Mamta Vohra, to provide contact numbers of all the police stations and police inspectors to all the childline centres. He directed them to constitute a committee to connect the beggar children with education and provide them shelter in children's homes. He said he expected support from SSP, Mukhya Nagar

Adhikari, Chief Medical Superintendent, District Social Welfare Officer, District Education Officer, Regional Transport Officials, all the SDMs, Assistant Labour Commissioner and executive officers of nagar panchayat, Doiwala, Herbertpur, Vikasnagar and Mussoorie for the welfare of children.

The DM said that it was unfortunate that Child Labour Department did not have correct information about the children working as labourers and the department was also not taking any steps in this direction. He called the officials of the department to convene a meeting with the NGOs working in this sector and improve their functioning.

He said the health check-ups of inmates in Kedarpuram children shelter homes were not conducted in the right maner. He emphasised on undertaking health examination of such children at least twice in one month.

Central coordinator of Parvitya Bal Manch Dwarika Prasad Noni apprised the DM about the problems cropping up with regard to Childline.

She suggested to the DM to include the Childline Helpline number in the list of emergency numbers so that timely assistance could be provided to the children in the difficulty. She said this number could be pasted

on buses, autos and school boards. She also sought permission to form a Child Protection Society from DM and a shelter home for destitute children above 10 years. She demanded land for the office of Child Welfare Committee.

She informed that in the period between January to May 26 this year, Chidline got 1015 phone calls for help, of which Childline provided help in 131 cases. Childline helped in giving shelter to six children, motivated 12 for home coming, rescued 26 from exploitation, tracked down 48 missing children out of which it managed to send 12 to their homes.

Dehradun, May 28
The plan of the Uttarakhand Department of Health and Family Welfare to give eight community health centres (CHCs) located in the Garhwal region has run into rough weather with private player M/S Rajbhara Medicare having second thoughts about signing an agreement with it.

While Sheel Private Ltd has already signed an agreement with the department for running eight community health centres in Kumaon, Rajbhara Medicare has so far not deposited the security amount as part of the performance agreement for running the eight CHCs in the Garhwal region.

Unable to give services to the patients due to a shortage of doctors, the department had decided to run CHCs on the public private partnership (PPP) mode for which lowest bidders were selected for running them. According to the terms for running the CHCs, the private player is to be entrusted with the clinical part of running the CHCs, while the government would continue to be in control of the national programmes. The private players were to deposit 10 per cent of the project cost in the form of security before signing the agreement. For each CHC the private player had to deposit Rs 30 lakh (10 per cent) for each CHC, but so far Rajbhara Medicare has not deposited the amount jeopardising the running of CHCs on the PPP mode in the Garhwal region, said a senior doctor.

All CHCs were to start operations by early July but while Sheel Private Ltd had deposited the security amount and inked the agreement, the fate of Garhwal CHCs was uncertain. The Director General, Health and Family Welfare, has written to the state government about the non-compliance on the part of Rajbhara Medicare.

According to sources, questions were raised during the presentation itself about Rajbhara Medicare's capacity to fulfil the terms of the agreement. It had also not been able to satisfy experts about its capacity to provide doctors in the eight CHCs in the Garhwal region.

However, Additional Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Piyush Singh said as of now they had not received any written intimation from Rajbhara Medicare. "We will wait and watch and even hold a meeting with Rajbhara Medicare as the CHCs have to be start functioning by July," he said.

Dehradun, May 28
On the last day of the Natya Mahotsav organised by the Department of Culture, artistes hailing from different states participated in a march called Rang Yatra.

The artistes dressed in traditional costumes sang and danced on the streets. The yatra culminated at the Town Hall. On the concluding day, Doon Ghati Rang Manch presented awards to the winners and honoured theatre personalities with the Doon Kirti Award. The winners of the Doon Kriti Award for 2013 are ND Mahalik from Orissa and Shiv Kumar of Dehradun was given award for social service.

The play ''Garh Vapsi'' staged by Sabh Rang Troupe from Shahjhanpur (UP) bagged the first prize for the best play.

The awards were given away by Mathew Prasad, VC of Horticulture and Forestry (Pauri).

Laxmi Narayan, president of Doon Ghati Rang Manch, said that despite the heat more than 300 artistes from different parts of the state participated in the festival.

Dehradun, May 28
A female leopard died in a road mishap on National Highway 74 in the Chidyapur range of Haridwar Forest Division today.

The incident happened during morning hours, when the leopard was hit by a speeding vehicle while it was trying to cross the highway.

The Haridwar forest authorities took the body of leopard for a post-mortem. Speeding vehicles are a major reason behind wildlife casualties, particularly on NH 74. A large number of animals, including Schedule 1 species like leopards, have been killed in road mishaps when hit by speeding vehicles on the highway.

Despite putting up the warning signs for motorists, leopards, sambhars, chitals, wild pigs and jackals and smaller animals like mongoose, civets and snakes are frequent casualties on this highway as they are trampled upon by the speeding vehicles. — TNS

Dehradun, May 28
Shyam Dutt Joshi, father of Priyanka Joshi, who was allegedly found hanging in the jungles near Vijay Park on February 28, protested in the police headquarters yesterday and called the police investigation “shoddy”.

Joshi suspects that his eldest daughter Krishna and a boy, Anil, of his village killed Priyanka. He accused the police of not interrogating them and bringing out the truth.

Superintendent of Police (Rural) Mamta Vohra said the police had taken Joshi’s complaint seriously and would investigate Krishna and Anil in the matter.

Priyanka, her sister Krishna and Anil used to stay in a rented room at Vijay Park in the town. Priyanka (21) and Krishna (24) were preparing for competitive exams and taking coaching for it. Anil worked as videographer.

He had requested Priyanka and Krishna’s brother Arun to allow him to stay with the girls until he got settled in the city. Arun had relented.

Joshi owns a ration shop and lives in Vikasnagar.

Krishna had alleged that Priyanka had locked her and Anil at night and they had no knowledge about her whereabouts.

Joshi came to know of the tragedy after five days of spotting of Priyanka’s body. Joshi said neither Krishna nor Anil told him anything about Priyanka going missing. Even when some local dailies carried news about Priyanka’s body having been found, Krishna did not inform him about it.

It was from his brother-in-law, who had come to know about the incident from his acquaintance, that Joshi came to know about Priyanka’s death. He said they had gone to the mortuary and identified their daughter.

Joshi said Krishna was fond of a good lifestyle and spent a lot of money and that she had become close to Anil, who had a habit of taking money from people. He said Krishna owned a mobile and she used to call a lot of people.

He, however, could not clarify the motive for which Krishna would have killed her younger sister.

He accused the police of taking the case lightly and trying to wash their hands off by showing it to be a case of suicide.

He alleged that his daughter had been murdered by Krishna and Anil. He said Priyanka was a studious and hard working girl and she would have cleared the competitive exams. He has sent Krishna to his native village with his wife.

Dehradun, May 28
“Shades of Green,” a compilation of inspirational quotes on trees and their magic by Surjeet Singh Khaira, was released by Vandana Shiva, a renowned environmentalist, at The Asian School here today. The book is dedicated to Hersilia Susie Oliphant, the founder of Welham Boys’ School.

AK Das, Principal, The Asian School, welcomed the guests and introduced chief guest Vandana Shiva and spoke about her achievements. The prominent guests who graced the occasion were Gunmeet Bindra, Principal of The Welham Boys’ School, S Ramaswamy, Principal Secretary, Forests, and Environmentalist. Gunmeet Bindra addressed the gathering bringing in the nostalgic memories of Surjeet Singh Khaira, who has been serving The Welham Boys’ School for the past 25 years as a geography teacher. Vandana Shiva passionately spoke about how she got involved with Chipko movement and encouraged the students that real education comes by involving oneself for the cause of nature. Surjeet Singh Khaira proposed the vote of thanks, saying that he is happy to have got the opportunity to compile the precious thoughts written by great people. — TNS

Dehradun, May 28
Indian Oil and ONGC teams won their respective matches in the 31st All-India Uttarakhand Gold Cup Cricket Tournament played here today.

In the first match, Indian Oil defeated BSNL by eight runs. Batting first, after winning the toss, the Indian Oil team scored 177 runs for nine wickets in 30 overs. Pinal Shah scored 58 runs while Paresh Patel scored 47 runs. Nitin Aggarwal took five wickets for 33 runs. In reply, the BSNL team was all out for 171 runs, losing the match by eight runs. Joginder Singh scored 40 runs and Manisha Mishra 35 runs for the BSNL team. Joginder, Paresh Patel and Prateek took two wickets each.

In the scond match, ONGC defeated Dena Bank by seven wickets. Batting first, the Dena Bak team scored 221 runs and were all out in 35 overs. Opener Awjit Singh was the top scorer for the team with 49 runs while Chandra Pal contributed 33 runs. Taruwar Kohli took five wickets for 39 runs. Chasing the total, the ONGC team scored 222 for three wickets to win the match by seven wickets in 28 overs. Opener R.S.Gupta scored 78 runs and Tanmay Tava 58 runs. S.L. Sabharwal took two wickets for 48 runs.