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Cong’s Haridwar nominee brings cheer to BSP
Poor Results
(A)maizing prasad makes lives sweet
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Navaratra festivities light up city
Devotees buy puja stuff outside Durga temple on first navaratra. A Tribune photograph
Slush clogs Raipur road
Mud dug out of the drain lying on the Raipur road in Dehradun. Tribune photo: Anil P. Rawat
Rawat outsmarts rivals
Resource centres fail to improve education: Study
English academies pick up in city
NDA clinch hockey tourney
Rain plays spoilsport at sports fest
The accused in police custody in Dehradun on Friday. A Tribune photograph
IG stung by bees
Light showers in Doon, mercury dips
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Cong’s Haridwar nominee brings cheer to BSP
Roorkee, March 27 But they were sure that the BSP vote bank would remain intact and their main rival is the BJP, not the Congress. Mohammad Shahzad, BSP candidate from Haridwar, said, "The BSP, which is largely banking upon Schedule Caste and Muslim votes, will directly benefit from Rawat's candidature. We have a strong base in the constituency, which has around 2.75 Scheduled Caste voters. The number of Muslim votes is also around 3 lakh, out of a total of 12.78 lakh. So one can well imagine our position here." Notably, Shahzad is the only Muslim candidate contesting for the seat. "Although we are seeing the BJP as our main rival, their candidate, Yatindranand, is very weak. It will also make an impact on Muslim votes of the BJP. These votes will definitely come to us," said Shahzad. "We work for the public and remain with them all the time. Our base is growing rapidly. “I am confident of winning by over 1.5 lakh votes this time," added Shahzad, who is the sitting MLA from Bhadrabad. The main election plank of the party is "public development, he infoemed. "To boost our chances, we will hold another rally in the constituency in May, which would be addressed by the Mayawati," said Shahzad, who has started his election campaign by holding meetings in every village and a door-to-door campaign to meet the voters. |
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Ayurveda students boycott
classes
Sandeep Rawat Tribune News Service
Haridwar, March 27 The students are up in arms against the dismal results of BAMS courses due to alleged irregularities in checking of papers as well as discrepancies in the exam pattern. Students of Rihsikul Ayurvedic College also joined the protest in support of their counterparts. Out of the 92 students who appeared in the exam from the college, only 14 have passed. At the Uttaranchal Ayurvedic College, Dehradun, out of the total 150 students, 68 have failed. Similarly, at the Himalayan Ayurvedic College, Shyampur, half the students have failed. The scenario is no better at Rishikul, where 70 students out of 160 have failed. “We have cleared state-level medical examinations and it’s only because we couldn’t afford high fees that we took admission in this course. Now, our future is at stake,” rued Harpreet Kaur a student said Meanwhile, the students’ union will soon meet the registrar of Garhwal University, to which these colleges are affiliated, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, in this regard. The union is demanding a high-level enquiry into the issue and affiliation with some other university. They are also protesting against the indifferent attitude of health minister Ramesh Pohkhriyal Nishank. On the other hand, Dean of the College, DN Sharma, while refuting the charges said: “We have 37 teachers in our college, which itself speaks about the college administration’s concern towards students. When they get high marks, students take all the credit but now when that’s not the case, they are blaming the authorities,” he said.
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(A)maizing prasad makes lives sweet
Dehradun, March 27 It was five years ago that a group of 20 women from Parthal village near the Vaishno Devi shrine were trained to prepare maize ladoos to be offered as ‘parsad’. The Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, helped in preparing the protocol for the unique offering which became a favourite with the pilgrims. The Vaishno Devi Shrine Board started purchasing these ladoos for Rs 10,000 per day from the village women, transforming their economic and social lives. Similar experiments to train local women to sell ‘parsad’ at religious shrines were also started in Saldhar and Masta villages near famous Hindu shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath in Garhwal Himalayas three years ago. “The turnover has climbed up to Rs 7 lakh per year,” said Dr Kiran Rawat, coordinator of the programme. From this yatra season starting April-end, the Uttarakhand government, along with four voluntary groups and scores of self-help groups of women in the vicinity of these shrine will be involved in preparing the ‘parsad’. “While voluntary groups will be facilitators, the manufacturing part will be looked after by the self-help groups of women. The state government will direct the mandir samitis to set up shops and purchase these products to be sold as ‘parsad’,” explained Dr Anil Joshi, founder of HESCO. A presentation in this regard will be given to state government officials soon and the Women and Child Development Department will coordinate the project. Interestingly, HESCO has been given the national award for womens’ development through science and technology for the year 2008 by the Union Ministry of Science and technology. The award carries Rs.10,00,000, a trophy and a citation. |
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Navaratra festivities light up city
Dehradun, March 27 Huge rush can be seen at the stalls selling navaratra stuff. “People purchase puja books and decorate the goddess with new clothes. On the last navaratra people perform havans to seek blessing of the goddess. Sales are very good at this time of the year,” said elated
Vikas, ashopkeepers. “Navaratra is a festival of devotion and people usually take satvik (pure
veg) food for nine days. People from different backgrounds pray together and understand the importance of good things in this world, which in return helps them to have a positive outlook towards life,” said
aacharya. “With red chunris and other puja items, we also have beautifully decorated photo frames of
Durga,” said Kishan Gopal, another shopkeeper. On the occassion of Navratras devotees and people visited various temples in the city especially Mata Mansa
Devi, Mata Chandi Devi, Sheetla Mata temple. Meanwhile, in Haridwar people were seen buying puja stuff in the market. Temples witnessed huge rush of devotees from early morning itself with people present in numbers during the morning and evening prayers. Hindu New Year also starts from today. This is Samvat 2066 according to the Hindu calendar. |
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Slush clogs Raipur road
Dehradun, March 26 This is one of the several points identified by the Public Works Department (PWD) for the purpose in the city. Brick lining of the damaged parts of the drain has been on since the past few days, in addition to its widening, to ensure unhindered flow of rainwater during the coming season. However, the slush deposited on a 300-mts stretch starting from the Survey Chowk has not been removed since then. Two brief spells of light showers over the last four days have worsened the problem. "Besides the foul smell, the slush has narrowed the width of the road, making driving difficult especially at night. It has become all the more inconvenient for the pedestrians. It would have been better if the PWD had all along arranged for its disposal," said Sanjay, a shopkeeper in Karanpur area who takes this route daily from his house on Mohini Road. On the other hand, while admitting to the inconvenience caused to public, YN Rajvanshi, PWD assistant engineer who is supervising the work, held the traffic police responsible for the delay. "We had started removing the slush but the police did not allow this for want of proper permission required for plying a tractor-trolley engaged for the purpose. We even tried at night, but were again stopped. Now I will request for permission tomorrow to carry out disposal at night so that public inconvenience is minimized," he said. Similar is the situation at the busy Araghar Chowk where earth dug out for the new drain has been lying for the past several days, leading to traffic jams. |
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Rawat outsmarts rivals
Dehradun, March 27 Harish Rawat, who was rendered “homeless” following declaration of Almora, his home constituency, as a reserve constituency in the fresh delimitation exercise, has not only found a new home but also shown that he is no pushover in the state politics. Rawat was replaced as state Congress chief following the defeat of the party in the assembly elections in 2007. His term as a Rajya Sabha MP ended in 2008. He had declared he would be on a sabbatical till 2010. However, a shrewd politician that he is, he began nurturing the Haridwar Lok Sabha two years ago seat that was made an open seat. During the race for party nomination, Rawat maintained his cool and fought for ticket for his protege Pardeep Tamta, a former legislator from Almora. After that, he went full throttle to get the ticket from Haridwar for himself. The other two senior Congress leaders of the state, Vijay Bahuguna and former union minister Satpal Maharaj, also secured the party ticket from Tehri Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal. While Bahughuna is a sitting MP from Tehri, Maharaj only once represented the Pauri Garhwal seat in 1996. But Rawat outsmarted his rivals in getting two nominations, despite down and out in the party organisation. After his exit as state party chief, veteran Congressmen ND Tiwari managed to install his own man, Yashpal Arya, as party chief. However, in the ticket distribution this time and his followers were disappointed. Arya, who wanted a ticket for his son Sanjeev Arya from Almora (reserve), could not succeed. His preference for Tilak Raj Behad from Nainital was ignored. KC Singh Baba, sitting MP, got the party nod.
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Resource centres fail to improve education: Study
Mussoorie, March 27 Findings suggest that BRCs and CRCs have failed to provide adequate pedagogical support at the village level and also failed to mobilise the local communities in Punjab. Study also suggest that excess workload, lack of personal skills and inadequate capacity building are some of the factors which have limited the efficiency of the BRCs and CRCs. The study, which has been conducted by the National Institute for Administrative Research (NIAR), Mussoorie, a research and training wing of the LBSNAA, clearly shows that BRCs and CRCs have been involved mainly with monitoring and supervision of activities. However, important providing pedagogical support at the school level (another major function of these centres) has by and large being ignored. Dr. AP Singh, Associate Professor at NIAR and the coordinator of the study said, “It is being felt that the BRCs and CRCs have been able to make only a limited contribution towards improving the effectiveness of SSA in Punjab since they have not focused sufficiently on improving the quality of education.” “This study reveals that a major thrust of these institutions has been to monitor and supervise the activities while there has been little effort in the direction of providing pedagogical support,” Singh said. Excess workload, lack of planning, low educational qualifications of key functionaries and vacant staff positions in BRCs and CRCs has also emerged as a weakness of SSA in the state. Sanjeev Sharma, research associate at NIAR said, “It has also been found BRC and CRC staff is also under a lot of work pressure and perhaps that has led to lack of focus on academics.”
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English academies pick up in city
Dehradun, March 27 “We started this institute to cater to the needs of those who are having inhibitions regarding the language. Moreover, as lot of professional colleges have come up in the city, people from interiors of the state, UP and other states come hereto gain confidence in language and to prepare themselves for the competitive world,” said Mayank
Goyal, director Veta. Under the training sessions, the emphasis is laid more on the spoken English then the writing. With the help of reference books and audio visual aids students are taught to come out of their comfort zone and be confident to face any interview or a group discussion. “Though students ratio in the classes always good. Housewives also come here to brush up their language skills and over these two years,” said Mayank
Goyal. At the Smart Talk institute the level of training is decided on the basis intelligent quotient (IQ) of the candidate. IQ is tested through an interview and a written test. |
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NDA clinch hockey tourney
Dehradun, March 27 NDA was on the offensive right from the beginning and made some strategic moves in the initial minutes of the game to pressurise their opponent. The strategy paid rich dividend to NDA as they score their first goal in the 12th minute the first half through R Singh. But NDA failed to maintain the lead as IMA struck back to find an equaliser in the 24th minute of the game through Bhogale to make it 1-1 all by the end of the first half. The second half saw both the teams struggling to take a decisive lead in the match but none of the team succeeds in scoring a goal. Second half went goalless. The team failed to make use of the extra time. Match was decided through the penalty shootout, in which NDA team beat IMA by 4-3. The final score at the end of the match was 5-4 in NDA favour.
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Rain plays spoilsport at sports fest
Roorkee, March 27 Weather delayed the
ceremony and forced the organisers to minimise the elaborate programme also. The ceremony was held in IIT Convocation Hall instead of open stadium. To give colours to our first ever sports festival, we made splendid
preparations including flag march by the participating teams. But the intermittent rains spoiled everything and forced us to shift the event into walled hall,” said Gargi Singh, an organiser. Commandant, Bengal Engineering Group (BEG), Brig Manoj Kumar exhorted the participants to take the inclement weather as a challenge. “Such are unexpected challenges and everyone should take it with sportsman spirit,” said the chief guest while addressing the participants in a brief
ceremony. Meanwhile, Gargi Singh introduced the captains of the team to the gathering.
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Poacher, wife nabbed
Dehradun, March 27 Dariya was wanted by a Jabalpur court for his role in a tiger killing in 1988. The MP police had then arrested some of the associates, but Dariya has been absconding since then. In assistance with WPSI volunteers and state forest authorities, the team managed to corner Dariya despite frantic efforts by the latter to flee from the region. Dariya was arrested from Corbett region last year after his alleged involvement in tiger poaching, but he managed to get bail.
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IG stung by bees
Dehradun, March 27 IG Kumaon Ashok Kumar, who was holding the inspection, was among the officials who had to squat on the ground to avoid the bees. Officials had no option but to rush for wet towels and even blankets to protect their seniors. Later, a private doctor was rushed to the spot who provided medical aid to senior police officials. Nearly a month back, Uttarakhand cabinet minister Matbar Singh Kandari had to face a similar attack of bees in one of its programmes. |
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Light showers in Doon, mercury dips
Dehradun, March 27 Met department said, a cyclonic
circulation that was hovering over Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan from last few days has moved eastwards towards Uttarakhand. “These rains are likely to continue in the state for next 24 hours,” said Dr Anand Sharma. He also said another system was building up which would cause of another spell of light rains within a day or two. Meanwhile, rains today made the Doonites take out woolens due to sudden change in weather. |
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Slush taken out of the drain on Raipur road for repairs before the onset of rainy season has become a bane for vehicular traffic.
This is one of the several points identified by the Public Works Department (PWD) for the purpose in the city.
Brick lining of the damaged parts of the drain has been on since the past few days, in addition to its widening, to ensure unhindered flow of rainwater during the coming season.
