Dehradun, November 24
Vice Admiral B.S.Randhawa, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, the senior most serving Rimcollian (Rashtriya Indian Military College alumni) officer in the Indian Navy visited RIMC, his alma mater today. He was in the Shivaji Section at RIMC. He gave a brief presentation about the Indian Navy and showed a video clip on INS Trishul, a war ship, while motivating young Cadets to join the Defence Forces.

While addressing the cadets he felt nostalgic, vividly remembering his fond days spent in the Alma Mater. He was a happy blend of humility and confidence and urged the cadets not to desert their conscience ever and remember that an honest person shall always lead in whatever he does.

He highlighted the point that Rimcos, as well as Rimcollians should outshine everywhere to live up to the expectations of everyone. Col. H. Dharmarajan, SM Commandant RIMC, presented him College Crest, while vice admiral B.S. Randhawa presented him a memento.

This was followed by tea, wherein vice admiral B.S. Randhawa interacted with the cadets and gave his precious advice. The other dignitaries present were Col. H. Dharmarajan, SM Commandant RIMC, Lt Col Rajesh Nathawat , administrative officer RIMC, KS Ahlawat, vice principal and other members of the faculty.

Dehradun, November 24
The win of former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari in the Rajya Sabha polls held on November 21 and the selection of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections has added to the problems of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.

As Koshiyari is a member of the state assembly from Kapkot assembly segment in Bagheshwar district of Kumoan, his going to the Rajya Sabha and consequent resignation from the assembly would reduce the BJP to 35 members out of the total of 70 members of the state assembly.

The party has also been in a dilemma over the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls from among party legislators. Three party legislators are strong contenders for the Lok Sabha tickets out of the total five seats in the state. Madan Kaushik, Uttarakhand education minister hailing from Haridwar is a strong contender for the Haridwar parliamentary seat and has been lobbying for his nomination.

Similarly, selecting a candidate for the Almora Lok Sabha seat has become another problem for the party. The Almora seat, represented by Uttarakhand BJP chief Bacchi Singh Rawat, has been reserved in the fresh delimitation.

Ajay Tamta, Uttarakhand social welfare minister, was tipped to be the party nominee for the seat. He was also elevated to the rank of a cabinet minister sometime back as part of the efforts to project him as a potential candidate from Almora reserve seat.

Munna Singh Chauhan, party legislator from Vikasnagar in Dehradun district, is also in the running for Tehri Lok Sabha seat. His wife Madhu Chauhan recently won as an independent candidate for the post of president of zila panchayat of Dehradun district. As seven assembly segments of Dehradun district are also part of the Tehri Lok Sabha seat, Munna Singh Chauhan is considered a heavyweight.

If these legislators are given nominations for these seats, the number of ruling BJP legislators would further reduce to 32. However, there is no threat to the BJP government led by Chief Minister Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) since it has the support of three Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) members and three independents.

But in such a scenario, UKD as well as independents would have much more leverage that is not to the liking of BJP managers. "The party high command would decide about the tickets for Lok Sabha seats at the appropriate time taking into consideration larger party interests," Dr Devender Bhasin, chairman of the Uttarakhand Media Advisory Committee and a senior party leader said.

Dehradun, November 24
The announcement of the State Advisory Price (SAP) for sugarcane by the Uttarakhand government will take some more time.

According to the senior government officials, the SAP would be fixed only after getting the report from the expert committee to be constituted in this regard. The said development has is bound to perturb sugarcane farmers because the crushing season has already started and farmers had even started giving the produce to sugarmills.

Farmers in various parts of the state, especially in Haridwar, are up in arms against the government on account of the delay in announcement of SAP.

Additional sugarcane secretary C.M.S. Bist said that in compliance with the directions of the Nainital High Court, the process to set up an expert committee comprising experts from field of agriculture, sugarcane, government officials, sugarcane mill representatives and farmers, is underway. “Once the committee submits its report, the final decision regarding the SAP would be taken,” he informed.

Expressing dismay over the issue, senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana said, “The committee should have been constituted before the start of the crushing season. Some private mills have not yet settled their long-standing dues of the farmers. And now, for this season, the farmers had already started giving the produce to the sugarmills and the delay in announcement of SAP will further increase their dues.”

He added that the Congress would stage an agitation against the state government in December and problems being faced by sugarcane farmers would be the main issue.

There are ten sugarmills in Uttarakhand, out of which six are in government and cooperative sectors, while the rest are in the private sector.

State government officials claimed that government-controlled mills in the state had settled the dues of the farmers. However, as per the estimates available with the office of the sugarcane commissioner, a total of Rs 26 crore is still due on private mills.

Dehradun, November 24
The leaders of Haj Sewa Samiti, Uttarakhand, including its patron Latafat Hussain today raised the issue of “wrong information” in the Haj guide which was released by Chief Minister Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd) recently.

Hussain strongly flayed the state government and said, “It is extremely unfortunate that person like Shamim Alam, who is neck deep in corruption was appointed president of the state Haj committee.

And just because of the fact that Alam is uneducated, inexperienced and has little knowledge about religion, there are glaring mistakes in the guide.”

It is pertinent to mention that Hussain owes allegiance to the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD)— the alliance partner of BJP in Uttarakhand. Hussain said, “In violation of Section 19 and 21/1 of Central Haj Committee Act 2002, Alam was made the president.

Even before the appointment, we have submitted documentary proof regarding Alam’s corrupt activities to Khanduri but to no avail.”

He further said that notwithstanding the fact that Khanduri had announced in the State Assembly that a committee to probe the charges against Alam would be constituted, nothing came out even after a year.

Raising another issue, Hussain said that Centre had increased the quota for Haj pilgrims. “While other states got the benefit, the Uttarakhand government did not take any interest and failed to get any increase in their state quota,” he alleged, while adding that Alam had committed several irregularities while holding the chair of the Haj Committee president.

Hussain said that they would be meeting Khanduri within a week and will demand a look into issues.

He announced that if this time, nothing concrete comes out, they would be compelled to launch a massive agitation against the government.

“We, under the banner of the Haj Sewa Samiti, Uttarakhand, would bring the Muslim community on one platform and will stage protest,” he said.

Hussain said efforts were afoot to make the agitation as effective as possible as this was an emotive issue.

Despite repeated attempts, Shamim Alam was not available for comment. However, Devender Bhasin, chairman of the Uttarakhand Media Advisory Committee and a senior party leader, said that the state government had made repeated requests to the Centre for increasing the Uttarakhand quota for Hajis. “But due to political vindictiveness, our requests were turned down”, he claimed. Regarding the mistakes in the Haj Guide, he said that if there is any error, the same should be brought to their notice and necessary amendments would be made.

Dehradun, November 24
With a view to provide the health care to people residing in remote areas of the state, the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (U-SAC) has chalked out a plan to provide tele-medicine services with the help of the fleet of ambulances of EMRI service (108) and remote sensing.

U-SAC director Dr M.M. Kimothi said that tele-medicine can prove to be an effective tool to deal with the medical problems being faced by thousands of people in remote areas on account of the lack of adequate health services and shortage of physicians.

Ever since the Hyderabad-based Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), in joint venture with the health department of Uttarakhand, launched EMRI 108 service in the state, the service had proved to be a great success.

“The fleet strength of the ambulances is 65 which is fairly good for covering the remote villages in Uttarakhand. We intend to use satellite technology (remote sensing) to connect all ambulances for tele-medicine purposes,” said Dr M.M. Kimothi, adding that the hub for the tele-medicine facility would be located in Dehradun. “We just have to link all vehicles with a hub using satellite technology,” he added.

Dehradun, November 24
Becoming oblivious to the world around them for some time as part of yoga meditation workshop turned out to be unique experience for students of a little known Green Field School, Mohini Road, affiliated to the Uttarakhand State Education Board.

Like their counterparts from well-known CBSE and ICSE schools of Dehradun, the students of this school come from not that well off and educated families. The novelty of the initiative taken by the school principal Reena Jaggi was so overwhelming that the students were heard asking about the next workshop. Going by the students’ response, Jaggi said she would make it happen at least once a week.

Around 60 students of class VI to IX participated in the workshop conducted by Ruchi, a volunteer of Dehradun centre of Delhi based Dhyan Foundation set up by the students of Yogi Ashwini. It lasted more than an hour.

It began with Ujjai Pranayam, a powerful natural way of breathing followed by laughing Buddha which made the students shed their inhibitions. This helped them go bit inward and feel lighter.

They opened up thereafter making it easier to relate to dhyan. The workshop wrapped up with brief dhyan on expansion of Anahat Chakra, the seat of love. “I felt very light, relaxed and peaceful,” remarked Sonali of Class VI.

Ruchi informed that the foundation is deeply committed to the spread of yoga in its pure form as handed by sage Patanjali. The workshop was just introduction of Sanatan Kriya as practiced by Yogi Ashwini.

It moves a person away from Vikriti (imbalance and disease) to Prakriti (nature and balance). Some components of this kriya were specially tailored for young students. The workshop was conducted free of cost.

Jaggi said the school management decided to expose students to yoga in an organised manner with the purpose of de-stressing them as well as releasing negative thoughts. “Often it is seen that moral aspect of the education is neglected which, in fact, is of basic importance. In its absence, the students are increasingly turning indisciplined and violent. So the idea of organising this workshop came up in accordance with the larger goal of school education to help students become balanced personalities and imbibe moral values,” she said.

Dehradun, November 24
The integrated approach adopted by the district administration to tackle the problems of burgeoning traffic, parking and encroachment of roads can become effective if compliance of instructions in this regard becomes a priority with the concerned official machinery.

This is what the district magistrate Amit Singh Negi tried to put across during the meeting of top officials of different departments. In a manner like never before since Dehradun became the state capital, the meeting, lasting several hours, deliberated extensively on the above problems, their causes and identified solutions.

He asked all concerned departments to work in close coordination, as the lasting solution to such problems was possible only that way.

Negi gave on-the-spot instructions to the officials of the PWD, telecommunications, Municipal Corporation, Forests, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), police, Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) for their time bound compliance.

For example, he instructed the deputy general manager, UPCL, to submit the proposal for removal of electric poles from 14 areas of traffic congestion to MDDA within three days. These areas include Survey Chowk, Dharampur Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Rajpur Road, Kanak Chowk, Balliwala Chowk, Old Survey Road, Dilaram to Hathibarkala stretch and Eucalyptus Road.

On the issue of encroachments on important roads, Negi himself enumerated 20 examples of auto repair workshops occupying significant part of roads in various places in the city to the police and MC officials and instructed immediate action against the workshop owners and constant monitoring to prevent reappearance of such traffic impediments.

Besides removal of encroachments by fruit and tea vendors on the roads, the major bottlenecks ordered to be de-congested with immediate effect included Ahrat Bazar, Paltan Bazar, Chakrata Road, Lansdowne Chowk to Darshan Lal Chowk and Prince Chowk to Ghanta Ghar Chowk.

To ensure smooth flow of traffic, the DM stressed on the need to widen city roads and asked the officials of the PWD and MC to use the government land for the purpose where it is available.

In case of private land, he asked the officials to negotiate with the owners failing which a process could be initiated to acquire such land in the larger public interest. He also called upon the heads of departments whose land could be used to facilitate smooth traffic, to cooperate with the agencies involved in this task.

Placement of dustbins, creating traffic diversions and putting signages at important points were other tasks entrusted to the concerned departments.

As for the implementation aspect, Negi informed that though he was personally of the view that review of the progress of the work should be done on monthly basis. But initially, the review in the presence of all concerned officials would be done after every two months.

“I will be following up the progress of works over the phone to maintain pressure on the officials to finish their jobs in the stipulated time,” he said.

Dehradun, November 24
Residents of Mohini Road area in the posh Dalanwala locality were in for surprise one fine morning as they found all the three dustbins placed in the stretch falling between Luxmi-Mohini road crossing and Rispana River missing.

There were as many as three bins placed in this kilometer stretch, which stands in this densely populated area with a substantial generation of garbage.

All the three bins were removed in a calculated manner few days back for the reasons best known to municipal authorities.

The residents of this area are now confronted with the garbage disposal problem. “There are only two options left for us either to go towards Rispana river or travel to the extreme EC road at end of Mohini Road, where we find few of bins to dispose garbage”, says Anil, who is self employed but adds that it was certainly not an easy task to travel a kilometer or so every morning to dispose off garbage.

However, the municipal corporation authorities deny sudden removal of bins. Chief health officer Dr Gurpal Singh argues that there was no question of shifting of bins till such requests come from the very residents of that locality.

He said only smaller refill bins are shifted at times as per the suitability and question of removal of bins from the Mohini locality does not arise.

Interestingly, piles of garbage can be seen in close proximity to the house of MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh, who also stays on Mohini Road.

However, the municipal corporation admitted that placing bins was in itself a big challenge for them, as people prefer keeping bins at a safe distance from their residences.

There have been instances when people have forced their councillors on ensuring the bins got removed from their close vicinity of their residences.

Dehradun, November 24
Dhruv Pal and Mayank Rawat have made it to the quarterfinal in the u-12 category of AITA National Tennis Series Tennis Tournament underway at Shanti Tennis Academy here today.

The tournament is organised in u-12 and u-14 categories for boys. The teams from Delhi, UP, Gujarath, Bihar, Maharashtra, J&K, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh are participating in the tournament.

Results of Ist round in u-12 boys:

Dhruv Gupta (Delhi) defeated Ronak (Dehradun) (2-4, 4-1 and 4-0), Karan Gera (Haryana) overpowered Mrityunjai Badola (Dehradun) (4-0,1-4 and 4-2), Sachin Gopalka (Delhi) out shined Siddhart Kapur (Dehradun) (4-1 and 4-2), Utkarsh Bharadwaj (Dehradun) beat Dhruv Singh Tomar (UP) (4-4 and 4-1), Ayush Goyal (Dehradun) overpowered Guldil Khera (Dehradun) (4-4 and 5-3), Manik Dabar defeated Rahul Kumar (Haryana) (4-2 and 4-0).

Results of the second round u-12 boys:

Mayank Rawat (Dehradun) outclassed Abhimanu Rojra (Haryana) (5-3 and 4-0), Amit Aggarwal (Delhi) beat Utkarsh Bharadwaj (Dehradun) (4-0, 2-4 and 4-0), Shamai Dhavan (Delhi) outclassed Parth Rastogi (Chandigarh) (4-2 and 4-1), Adhitya (Delhi) overpowered Manik Dabral (Dehradun) (4-0, 4-1), Sumit Pal Singh (J&K) outclassed Ayush Goyal (Dehradun) (4-1, 4-0), Rohin Gajari (Haryana) defeated Karan Gera (haryana) (4-0 and 4-1), Dhruv Pal (Dehradun) beat Dhruv Gupta (Delhi) (4-0, 4-1), Shivam Malhotra (Delhi) overpowered Sachin Gopalka (Dehli) (4-2, 4-0) have entered the quarterfinals.

The results of first round in u-14 boys:

Ayush Joshi (Delhi) outclassed Shauriya Verma (Dehardun) (4-4,4-2), Mayank Rawat (Dehradun) defeated Ronak (Dehradun) (5-3, 2-4, 44), Rohin Gajrai overpowered Dhruv Gupta (Delhi) (4-1, 5-3), Rahul Singh (Dehardun) beat Dhruv Signh Tomar (UP) (4-1, 4-0), Shivam Malhotra defeated Devansh Bansal (Haryana) (4-1, 4-0), Abhimanu Rojara (Haryana) Chiwan Gulati (Haryana) (2-4, 4-2, 4-2), D. Dhruv beat Arush Goyal (Dehardun) (4-1,4-2), Sumit Pal Singh (J&K) outclassed Mrityunjai Badola (Dehradun) 4-1,4-0), Shivam Kotiyal (Dehradun) overpowered Amit Chehal (Haryana) (4-2, 5-3), Devwal Aditya (Delhi) deafted Shram Dhavan (Delhi) 4-1, 4-0), Anuj Punjani (delhi) outclassed Manik Dabral (Dehradun) 4-0, 4-0), Amitya Agarwal (Delhi) Abhimanu Bhargav (Haryana) (4-2, 0-4,4-2), Ashok Goyal overpowered G. Khera (Dehradun) (4-1,4-1). They all entered the second round. 

Dehradun, November 24
After several discoveries offshore the Krishna Godavari in the recent past, the ONGC has again struck oil in Block-IG at a depth of 225 metres in well G-4-6, 15 km off the Yanam coast in Andhra Pradesh.

Three hydrocarbon-bearing sands have been encountered in the gross interval 3757m - 4185m based on geological data, log evaluation and a mini-drill stem test on September 30 and October 1 this year.

The thickest sand interval (4108 - 4185 m) comprises 55 metres of net oil pay. The discovery augurs well as it marks the ONGC's determination to put the KG offshore to new and higher levels of production.

The ONGC plans a fast-track hub development programme, including a mix of older finds like G-2 and GS-29 with finds like Padmawati, Kanakadurga, and a slew of other discoveries using a common production facility.

This is expected to be on course with an initial rate of 20,000 bbl/day by 2012-13 which is expected to peak to 150,000 bbl/day by 2016-17.