Dehradun, February 13
Since the government has not been able to ensure safe drinking water, the community should pitch in to take over the operations and monitor drinking water schemes with the help of voluntary groups recommends Environmental Quality Monitoring Group (EQMG).

A four-day workshop was organised here by the Environmental Quality Monitoring Group (EQMG) of People’s Science Institute (PSI), a local voluntary group sponsored by ‘Water Aid’, an international organisation working in nine states funding research and development in the water and sanitation. The workshop also deliberated various issues related to safe drinking water supply and management of drinking water schemes.

Uttarakhand in general and capital city of Dehradun has been suffering from inferior water quality over the years due to presence of pathogens. “The Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission has not started here yet. The only alternative left is to make the community aware about participating in the safe drinking water endeavour,” said Anil Gautam of Peoples’ Science Institute (PSI).

It was decided that ‘Water Aid’ would provide expertise in various states including Uttarakhand by installing water treatment plants. The organisations had successfully worked in Andhara Pradesh and Rajasthan. Technical managers from Water Aid, government officials and consultants as well as representatives of partner organisations of Water Aid who attended the Workshop advocated that the operational success and viability of drinking water schemes could only be ensured through active cooperation and participation of the beneficiary community.

At the workshop, subject matter experts also highlighted the various problems afflicting the water quality and expressed concern over the multiple issues involved. R Srikanth, technical manager, Water Aid, discussed the basic agenda of Water Aid and said country is facing serious problems related to availability and quality of drinking water. He said the situation has taken a serious with the toxicity in water due to fluoride, iron and arsenic. He said the population consuming polluted water was increasingly falling prey to the various adverse affects that are not only clinical but also socio-psychological in nature.

Therefore, it becomes imperative that a proper water quality monitoring and management apparatus is put in place.

The situation is bad in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh due to the presence of arsenic content in water in large content. However, AP is afflicted with the problem of fluoride in drinking water.

Dr. Ravi Chopra, director, People’s Science Institute (PSI), said in order to combat the problems of water availability, its quality and management, a planning would be required to hand over the control and management of the water resources back to the community.

While laying stress on reviving various traditional water harvesting structures, Dr. Chopra said this would ensure easy availability of water. He said effective planning, research and development was required for a holistic resolution of the problem.

Hemant Joshi, director of Jaipur-based Community Capacity Development Unit (CCDU), appraised various present day problems related to drinking water availability and its quality in Rajasthan. He said the state is already facing serious scarcity of safe drinking water, which is compounded by intense fluoride toxicity and salinity. Throwing light on state government’s various initiatives launched to provide safe drinking water, he said under the Integrated Fluoride Mitigation Programme, activated alumina based domestic and community water supply gadgets were being installed to combat the menace.

Chief engineers of Water supply departments of Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Orrisa also participated in the workshop. A two-day long training session on “water and sanitation” issues was also conducted during the workshop.

Representatives of various voluntary organisations, who attended the workshop further resolved to launch active efforts in their field areas to ensure the availability of safe drinking water and enlist the beneficiaries’ support in management, operation and maintenance of the drinking water schemes.

Dehradun, February 13
The standoff between the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and employees of the Military Engineering Services (MES), including some local residents, continues, even as both sides remain firm on their respective stands on the temple issue.

The district administration had called both sides for a meeting on Wednesday evening to resolve the issue. The MES employees alleged that IMA authorities were trying to deny them access to the temple by constructing a boundary wall. But IMA representatives, led by Brigadier (administration), insisted that this was not the case as the IMA was willing to provide them entry from the main road. So far, the devotees were coming to the temple regularly from Chakrata road.

Mediating on behalf of the administration, the Additional District Magistrate UC Kabadwal said they fully agree with the stand of the IMA, as it was a sensitive installation. “The temple stands on the land belonging to the IMA and it has every right to construct a wall to cover the area around it for security considerations. The insistence by the locals to use the old route to visit the temple seemed uncalled for in light of the IMA offer for alternative route, said Kabadwal.

The IMA authorities apprised the administration about litigation between both the sides in the past. But both sides compromised under which a small gate was provided by the IMA for the people to come through for worship.

Notably, the local court had decided ex-parte in favour of the IMA. Its representatives in the meeting said they might go to court again if the matter remained unresolved through talks.

“We have asked both sides to come again. Before that outcome of today’s meeting will be discussed with the District Magistrate,” said Kabadwal.

“Valentine’s Day, my dear Margery, and a proper time to make amends for not having addressed a letter to your own sweet self for many a long month, though you know most of my letters home bear the Cornish motto for “one and all”.”

These were the lines from a letter that Muager Monk wrote from Mussoorie to his sister Margaret Monk in England on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1843. This was one of the first few letters in India written on Valentine’s Day, a time when there were no e-mails or SMSs.

Mauger Fitzhugh Monk was an Irish, who lived 21 years in Landour, Mussoorie, amidst solitude and economic distress, discovered and lost a brief love affair. Monk was among the first Irish pioneers who came and established the beautiful town of Mussoorie. He joined as a Latin and art tutor in Sir John Mackinnon’s School on Mussoorie-Haathipaon road, far away from Landour.

As an ambitious enterpriser, Monk always wanted to have his own school in Landour, which he later did, but couldn’t run it successfully.

He even opened a hotel in Rajpur, which also couldn’t pick up a pace, which left him totally shattered.

Meanwhile, as a spiritual healer, Bess Elizabeth came in his life whom he married on November 26, 1842, in Landour.

Expressing about the change that love did to him, he wrote to Margaret in the same letter, “You can’t conceive what a beneficial effect matrimony has had on me. I no longer mope in my solitary apartments, building evanescent castles, nor, in a fit of the blues, rest my chin upon my hand, looking the picture of discontent, and wish myself and all about me anywhere but where I am. My meals are cheerful, my leisure hours are enlivened, a smile and a kiss await my return from my tutorial duties, and as I sit by my snug fireside of an evening my darling Bess reads to me as I draw, or sits opposite to me with her work, if other avocation or studies require my attention. In short, I have now one, who can sympathise with my grief or vexations, and rejoice when I rejoice; who has filled a vacuum I had long felt”.

Sadly, this love story didn’t last long. Bess left for her heavenly abode leaving behind Mauger and their only son who survived after two dead sisters. Later, Monk remarried 16-year- old Anne Weller who was an adopted child, a victim of a broken home with foster mother being mentally ill and a father who was never a father.

Monk never kept well after that and wanted to go to England to his dear ones - his father, brothers and sisters. On the way to England, he breathed his last in Meerut on December 9, 1849.

He was buried in the Meerut graveyard, far from the family and from Bess, who was buried in Landour, Mussoorie. The details of the love and the tragic life of Mauger Monk are safe today in Mussoorie with historian Gopal Bhardwaj.

The writer is a freelance journalist from Mussoorie

Dehradun, February 13
There is utter confusion regarding the acceptance of the report of the High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) formed by the Central government on the state of the Bhagirathi river following an agitation by the eminent environmentalist Prof GD Agarwal in June 2008. Agarwal had resumed his fast in New Delhi a month ago.

State government sources including the chairman of the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Yogendra Prasad claimed that the recommendation of the group to have four cumecs of water in the Bhagirathi downstream of Loharinag Pala project at all time has been accepted by the Union government.

This has paved the way for the construction of Pala Maneri and Bahironghati hydro-electric projects stalled by the state government following the agitation by Prof Agarwal in June last year.

However, Dr Ravi Chopra, director of Peoples Science Institute (PSI), a voluntary group and a close associate of Prof Agarwal dismissed these claims.

He said that the recommendations of the HLEG have been rejected by the government of India.

Chopra said that in a letter dated February 5, 2008 to Prof Agarwal, the Union power ministry stated that the union government has confirmed that no further hydroelectric projects would be undertaken on the Bhagirathi.

The letter was written following a meeting held in the Prime Minister’s Office between the Union Power Minister and other officials of the power ministry where it was agreed that the minimum flow of water from Loharinag Pala barrage in the river bed during the lean period shall be ensured at 16 cumecs or as may be decided by the Ganga River authority, which is under formation, claimed Chopra.

Prof Agarwal, who is again on an indefinite fast in protest against construction of Loharinag Pala hydro-electric project, has rejected the request of the union power ministry to end his fast.

The fast undertaken by him has entered its 30th day today. Agarwal stated that his fast would only end when all work on the Loharinag Pala project is stopped.

Dr Ravi Chopra said that the so-called highly placed sources appear to be highly motivated and are deliberately trying to mislead the people of Uttarakhand and decision makers.

Roorkee, February 13
The growing number of beggars here in this ‘educational hub’ of the state has become a big nuisance.

Around 50 beggars converge daily at the Civil Lines market, particularly in front of the renowned ‘Centenary Gate’ aka ‘Shatabdi Dwar’ of the Indian Institute of Technology.

The vagabonds, mainly slum kids, are also allegedly notorious for pickpocketing, lifting goods from shops besides their involvement in other smalltime illegal activities.

"Sudden increase in the beggars’ number is very surprising. Two-three months back, there were a handful of beggars in the area. But now, one can see the groups of these vagabonds roaming all around the entire day," said Mahesh Arora, a shopkeeper at the market opposite the Centenary Gate.

Having many eating joints, the market attracts a number of IIT students, foreign delegates to the IIT, tourists and other visitors.

"These beggars pester people and just cause irritation to everyone. Foreigners are their favourite ‘prey’ and these kids, one by one, chase them up to their destination,” said Amit Kumar, a student of fourth semester of College of Engineering, Roorkee, who visits Centenary Gate daily with his friends.

“I think this leaves a poor impression of the country on our ‘guests”, he added.

Another shopkeeper, Kapil Kumar, alleged that whenever they get a chance, these beggars pick pockets and open the purses of women.

“Surprisingly, the cops seem least bothered about the menace. Though the beat police make several rounds here, they never take any initiative to shoo these 'unwanted visitors' away,” lamented Kishore Kumar, another local shopkeeper.

SP (Rural) Ajay Joshi said that the main problem that the police was facing against this menace is absence of the Anti-Beggar Act here.

“Unlike Haridwar, the municipal board here has not adopted any such Act. As far as the lifting of goods from shops by these vagabonds is concerned, we will definitely take action in every reported case. Moreover, I have already instructed my staff to keep a watch on them”, said the police officer.