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Rawat to address party workers today
Poll Games
Rajaji gears up to foil jumbo infighting
Forest officials examine the body of the elephant killed in a fight between two tuskers at
Chila range in Haridwar. Tribune photo: Rameshwar |
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...Meanwhile, wildlife trust to the rescue
Cong high command placates big shots
City joins Earth Hour campaign
Ace shooter Rathore wants more ranges
Congress bankrupt of ideas, says Giri
Students of Government Degree College, Rishikesh, give their exams under tents raised for them.
A Tribune photograph
Truck union elects new head
Guv interacts with ST students
Uttarakhand Governor BL Joshi during his visit to the Indian Information Technology Institute for Scheduled Tribes near Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Firing In Air
Institutes help students explore career options
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Rawat to address party workers today
Haridwar, March 29 Congressmen, buoyed by the announcement of party leader Harish Rawat as candidate for Haridwar, have planned a massive reception for him on his visit tomorrow. Various meetings are being held to give final touches to the programme. It has been decided that workers will welcome Harish Rawat at Gurukul Narsan, Mangalore, Roorkee, Bahadrabad and Jwalapur area and then will accompany him in the road show. Harish Rawat will start his campaign from Narsan martyrs’ spot at Muzaffarnagar district. He will pay tribute to the martyrs of Uttarakhand agitation and address party workers. The entourage will move to Mangalore-Roorkee-Jwalapur-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Doiwala and will conclude at Dehradun where he will address party workers again. In the meeting of the minority cell of the Congress, state president Rao Sher Mohammed said that Muslims are with the Congress. He said that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has opted for the right candidate for Haridwar. He urged all party workers to unitedly work to ensure a massive victory for the former state party chief. Secretary Vijay Saraswat, district president Chaudary Rajendra Singh, Dr Sanjay Paliwal, Purushottam Sharma, Ran Vijay Singh, Manohar Valmiki, Sethpal Parmar, Pradeep Chaudhary addressed the meeting. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too has left its brawl-and-ticket fiasco behind and also started devising its poll strategy. Various meetings of the party have been held in Haridwar and Roorkee to make the environment conducive for the BJP in the constituency. At a meeting held in Roorkee, party general secretary Naresh Bansal urged party workers to see that the state BJP contributes all five seats of the state to the national tally. Swami Yatendranand, BJP candidate for Haridwar, was also present at the meeting and said that this was the test for party workers in which they must succeed. “May 13 is the anniversary of the nuclear tests at Pokhran. On the same day, elections will be held in the state. Party workers have to convert the day once again in a winning one,” said Ajay Bhatt, organisational state general secretary of the party. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal held a district party workers convention in Roorkee in which cabinet minister Diwakar Bhatt was the chief guest. He said that the party has always fought for the people’s cause. Party candidate Rajkumar Saini said that he would try to take all communities along. The Samajwadi Party candidate has started giving fuel to the hill-plain divide. Party candidate Ambrish Kumar said that politicians from the hills have exploited the local people’s trust. He said that politicians from the hills have always neglected the plains of Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar. Minorities and Dalits have been suffering due to the neglect. It is in their best interest to teach a lesson to the Congress and BJP for their continuous neglect of these sections. |
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Rawat caught in hill-plain divide
SMA Kazmi Tribune News Service
Dehradun, March 29 He has blamed hill politicians of the Congress as well as the BJP of bias against those living in the plains, the downtrodden and the minorities. Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav was politically isolated following the formation of the separate hill-state of Uttarakhand in November 2000 due to alleged police atrocities on the statehood agitationists during his reign as Chief Minister of the then undivided Uttar Pradesh in 1994. Despite a resolution on the formation of a separate hill- state, Yadav is considered a “villain” of the state. His party with two legislators in the interim assembly at the time of formation of the state has drawn a blank in the two elections held in 2002 and 2007. However, the Samajwadi Party reaped the dividends of espousing the demand for exclusion of Haridwar from Uttarakhand in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Its candidate, Rajinder Badi, won the election.
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Rajaji gears up to foil jumbo infighting
Haridwar, March 29 On Thursday, a tusker had killed its rival over a mate at the Chila range of the Park. The reason behind the incident was the natural sexual behaviour among elephants. In the past few years, five tuskers have died in this way. Rajaji National Park, which is regarded as a home for elephants, is gearing up for the uphill task. Park authorities are chalking out plans so that such incidents don’t happen so frequently. Park director SS Rassaily said that a special eye is being kept on tusker movement by officials. If any infighting is witnessed, forest officials and guards will try to scare them by firing in the air. The vigil in the park has also been intensified. Chila forest range warden SB Lal said that electric wiring will help prevent elephants from moving into residential areas and highways. In Thursday’s incident, traffic had to be diverted as the beasts were very close to the highway. The battle between elephants, though very intense and nearly fatal for the loser, is a natural phenomenon. The mating season has started and will peak in the coming months. This has raised the alarm among forest and park authorities. The average fight between elephants spans from 10 to 15 hours and mostly is due to a young tusker trying to get into the female herd. “The reason for the fights is that the young tusker wants to attract females with the show of his prowess and strength. Also, the older elephants don’t easily digest the intrusion of young ones,” said Dr Ritesh Joshi, an elephant expert at Rajaji. |
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...Meanwhile, wildlife trust to the rescue
Dehradun, March 29 Uttarakhand is among the few states which has a WTI-run MVS service. The service has handled 37 cases till January, including elephants, leopards and a rhino (in Dudhwa NP, Uttar Pradesh). It has been instrumental in safeguarding the lives of many wild animals where man and beast have come into conflict. WTI coordinator for Uttarakhand Dr AK Singh said as the state is rich in wildlife, these mobile vans prove very helpful. “The Mobile Veterinary Service (MVS) project aims to provide in-situ emergency relief to displaced and distressed wild animals. It also envisages placement of trained and equipped wildlife veterinarians in major protected areas across the country to ensure round-the-clock medical attention to wild animals in need,” Dr AK Singh said. The WTI has five MVS units out of which one is in Uttarakhand. Three units are in Assam and one is in Arunachal Pradesh. The MVS here not only caters to Uttarakhand but also to the wildlife rich areas of Terai in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh. The MVS is a clinic all by itself with the unit adequately equipped to deal with any sort of wildlife emergency. It is manned by a experienced wildlife veterinarian, a trained wildlife handler and a driver. The unit is designed to undertake rescue operations even in tough terrains. Significantly, the WTI ensures that all scientific principles and protocols are followed while dealing with animals in distress. Further guidelines on rehabilitation and reintroduction are also strictly followed. |
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Art of Living helps reduce aggression in kids
Dehradun, Mar 29 From past 10 years, Dehradun residents have also started associating with the course, and from jails to schools, everyone is coming forward to benefit from art of living courses. “The purpose of the course is to liberate oneself from stress so that after flushing out all the toxins, one can get back to nature and repay in the form of spreading joy, peace and love and also to think beyond castesim, racism and communalism,” said Nirangan Dev, an Art of Living teacher. “Nand kishore Vij was the first man to spread awareness about the course in the city and after getting inspired by the spiritual nature, I started the course with only nine people, and presently the response in the city has been excellent,” said Ashok Agarwal, basic course teacher. The courses of art of living are segregated on the basis of age. One of the most commonly practiced courses are Art Excel (7-16), Youth Empowerment Seminar (17-22), Basic Course (22+) and others such as Advanced Meditation Course, Shaj Samadhi Course and Divya Samaj Nirman Course. The positive impact of the courses has encouraged large number of children to avail from the course. Lately due to so much of stress prevailing in the society, schools in Doon have also started taking up these courses. “I have been teaching Art Excel course to children, and from past 9 years and students have shown keen interest towards the course. Earlier, when children were apprehensive about all this, today they get very enthusiastic and in fact look forward for the sessions especially during their breaks,” said Mona Agarwal, teacher for Art of Living. As children belonging in the age group of 7-17 are very restless, lots of activities are involved to keep their minds occupied for a productive cause. As compared to ‘Sudarshan Kriya’, the breathing technique applied for adults, Happy Kriya is taught to children, which is as effective as Sudarshan Kriya. Lots of games, group discussions, laugh and and other creative activities are taught to children.” Response has been great and symptoms of aggression fade away and complement it with high level of confidence, leadership qualities and concentration. Doon International and Welhams School have already started organising classes on Art of living, and now in April I am going to visit Unison School and Oak grove school in Mussorie to teach children,” said Mona. “Guru Ravi Shankar realised the needs of those who are depressed and ignored in the society. He introduced courses for jails, rehabilitation centers and women empowerment seminars,” said Nirangan Dev. The course has cured patients suffering from depression, high blood pressure, anxiety and diabetics in the city. |
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Cong high command placates big shots
Dehradun, March 29 While, three of them have got party nominations for the forthcoming polls, the fourth one, namely Indira Hariydesh, a former state minister who failed to get a party ticket, was made campaign incharge of the state. Thus, the party high command has made all four senior leaders of the state happy. Uttarakhand Congress has been divided broadly into two factions but several smaller groups were headed by senior leaders. Veteran Congressman Narain Datt Tiwari and former state Congress chief Harish Rawat headed the two rival factions. Both hail from Kumaon region and had been political opponents since long. After the formation of the state in November 2000, Harish Rawat was made state Congress Chief but Tiwari pulled the rug from under his feet when after the Congress’ win, he was dispatched by the party high command to become the first elected Chief Minister of the state. Tiwari had then taken two other senior leaders namely Satpal Maharaj and Vijay Bahuguna under his wings. Indira Hariydesh, another protégé of Tiwari, was number two in his cabinet. Throughout the five years of Tiwari rule, Harish Rawat acted more as an Opposition leader than the ruling party chief. In a bid to placate him, he was sent to Rajya Sabha in 2002. But after the defeat in the 2007 assembly polls, Harish Rawat was removed as state Congress chief. He retired as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2008 vowing not to contest any elections till 2010. However, as the 2009 Lok Sabha elections approached, each one of the top four leaders lobbied hard to get the party nomination. While, sitting MP from Tehri Garhwal Vijay Bahuguna, and Satpal Maharaj from Pauri Garhwal got the party nod, Harish Rawat also acted smart and got the party nomination from Haridwar since his own home constituency of Almora was reserved in the fresh delimitation. Indira Hariydesh, who lost the 2007 assembly polls from Haldwani, was a front-runner for the Nainital seat along with KC Singh Baba, the sitting Congress MP. But the party decided in favour of Baba. To placate him, Indira Hariydesh has been made the election campaign incharge of the state. |
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City joins Earth Hour campaign
Dehradun, March 29 Ordinance Factory, Survey of India, Wildlife Institute, Doon Hospital, District Magistrate Office, Welham Boys, Girls, Hilton, Aryan, Raja Ram Mohan Rai boarding Schools turned off their lights for one hour from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm yesterday. Orient Theater, Addidas and Reebok showroom, Allora Confectionary, Buffet, Natraj Book store and many other commercial establishments too joined in for the cause. More than 5,000 people participated in the programme at Gandhi Park. Mayor Vinod
Chamoli, also participated in the programme and also took up the opportunity to assure that the Dehradun Corporation will take the initiative to make its residents aware about energy-use pattern and global warming. He also announced the possibility of a tie up between Dehradun Muncipal Corporation and
WWF-India for environment conservation and education here. As many as 75 countries, including India had
committed to participate in WWF’s Earth Hour campaign in 2009. The campaign reached out to more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world. Conservation officer
WWF-India, field office Dr Jitendra Singh Rawat who supervised the campaign proceedings in the city expressed gratitude to the
heads of educational institutions and offices and also the residents of Dehradun for making the programme successful here. |
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Ace shooter Rathore wants more ranges
Dehradun, March 29 Indian’s ace shooter, Raj Vardhan Singh Rathore said he kept no immediate plans for retirement and would continue competing at international shooting events. Referring to Abhinav’s gold at Beijing Olympics, Rathore said after a series of good shooting performances at international levels, the shooting can no more be taken lightly by Sports Authority of India (SAI) as the sport kept immense potential for the country to earn medals at the Olympics. Commenting on the poor shooting infrastructure in the country he said, “Lot to be done to bring up the shooting infrastructure at par with other countries where best of facilities are provided. I am hopeful that in the coming years the facilities will get better for the shooters.” On Army’s ambitious mission Olympics, an Army man himself, Col Rathore said,“Mission Olympics was a project of the Army that aimed to prepare medal winning sportspersons for Olympics. The mission is being perused with utmost sincerity.” He sees huge potential of producing high quality shooters in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh because of its conducive environment. “Majority of the students in both the states join Army, both the states have produced shooter who have risen to the highest level of the games.” Rathor emphasised on the role of the district and state authorities over establishing more shooting ranges at various levels to ensure a mass participation in the game. “New shooting range will encourage youths to take up to shooting. The expenses are not the reason behind why the game is out of reach of the public, but the non-availability of the shooting ranges is definitely a problem.”
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HMV thump RKCA by 116 runs
Dehradun, March 29 RKCA team’s decision to field first proved wrong as HMV team took it to its advantage and piled up a huge total of 247 runs in allotted 40 overs. HMV’s opening batsman gave their team a fine start to make 92 runs for the opening wicket in the first ten overs. Vivek was the top scorer for the team as he smashed 57 runs in 36 balls, hitting eight fours and three sixes in his innings. Ahmed scored 56 runs from 50 balls, hitting three fours and five sixes. Robin Bisht and Vaibhav Pandey made a useful contribution scoring 31 and 27 runs respectively. For RKCA team, Sachin and Azad took two wickets each. Chasing the target of 248 runs, RKCA team was all out for 131 runs. None of its batsmen showed any resistance as they fell like a pack of cards before a disciplined bowling attack of HMV team. Openers Laxmi Kant and Lovelesh Kumar scored 31 runs in the first five overs. After the departure of Laxmi Kant at the score of 23 runs none of the batsman occupied the crease for a long. Though, Rahul tried to put up fight but he to got out at the score of 24 runs. For HMV team Abmed was the lead wicket taker who claimed three wickets, Himanshu and Vivek supported him well from the other end to pick up two wickets.
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Congress bankrupt of ideas, says Giri
Dehradun, March 29 Giri, who addressed a well-attended election rally held at a hall here today alleged that the Congress could not find a local candidate from Haridwar and had to bring in Harish Rawat who is originally from
Almora. Giri maintained that the Congress was bankrupt of ideas and was baffled by the dynamism shown by the two-year rule of the BJP government led by Maj Gen BC Khanduri
(retd). He claimed that so much of developmental works have been done by the present government as compared to previous Congress government in the state. A large number of BJP leaders and workers turned out to extend support to the BJP candidate from
Haridwar. Interestingly, in the fresh delimitation, three assembly segments of Dehradun district namely
Rishikesh, Doiwala and Dharampur have been added to the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat. Meanwhile, Congress candidate Harish Rawat will also be holding his road show tomorrow from Haridwar to
Dehradun. He will be meeting party workers at various places enroute to Dehradun where he will also address party workers. |
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Pupils take exams under shamianas
Dehradun, March 29 Due to shortage of classrooms, the college authorities had to erect shamianas to conduct the exams.The tables usually used for food at marriage ceremonies were laid for students to write their
answersheets. And on each table were seated four students. DS Bhandari, principal of the college, said : “We had informed the university about the problem of making seating arrangements for a large number of students. But nobody listened. Rather, officials forced us to make arrangements for tents to be used as examination
centres.” The students alleged they were ill at ease while attempting their exam in such circumstances. Hemwati Nandan Garhwal University, Srinagar, has ben accorded the status of central university. Hundreds of colleges in
Garhwal, Dehradun and Haridwar are affiliated with the university. |
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Truck union elects new head
Haridwar, March 29 The New Panchpuri Truck Association (NPTAH) has decided to take up various issues, faced by the truck operators, with the administration. Gulzar said the main priorities of the union would be to stop the exploitation of truck operators by the companies. Also the union will take forward the contentious issue of contract with SIDCUL, which is hanging for quite some time and is affecting the trade of the Haridwar truck owners. With the establishment of SIDCUL 200 odd companies have set up their manufacturing units and plants in the area and 100 more such companies are also planning to start their operations from the SIDCUL area. It is lucrative for companies to establish their units here as the government provides them several tax concessions. Present at the meeting of union were Bal Singh, Haji Fazil, Naresh Chauhan, Iqbaal, Pavan, Rao Shamshad, Rao Shakhawat, Bharat, Neetu, Gulfam Querishi, Haji Khurshid, Rahman, Sardar Babloo among others.
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Guv interacts with ST students
Dehradun, March 29 In his brief address to the students, the Governor asked them to rise above petty religious and community considerations for the betterment of the nation. Senior journalist Tarun Vijaya said the tribal communities had immense potential and called for bringing these communities into the nation’s mainstream. JP Pokhriyal, principal of the institute, said that about 100 students belonging to various tribal communities from Ladakh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh were getting the best of education. Former Doon School headmaster Gulab Ram Chandani and prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala were present on the occasion.
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EC may act against RSS workers
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, March 29 According to Udham Singh Nagar district and election officers, some RSS workers not only brandished arms but also fired in air at a camp held in the premises of a local college in Rudrapur town. A complaint in this regard was lodged with the election officials by Tilak Raj Behad, Congress legislator from Rudrapur. A CD of the function showing RSS workers firing in air was also provided as proof. Udham Singh Nagar police officials said that an inquiry has been ordered and three persons have been identified with the help of the CD. They further said that action under the Arms Act would be initiated against them.
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Institutes help students explore career options
Dehradun, March 29 Career Launcher is been organising seminars and enrolling students in various programmes thereby providing solutions to various career related queries. “From October we start visiting schools so that we know what kind of problems they face. At least 70 to 80 per cent of students enroll for programmes after attending seminars,” said Amit Goyal, counsillor at CL. As most of the students and their parents get jittery for future after completing XIIth, the counsillors of the institute give counseling sessions and suggest different courses to the students on the basis of their interest, personality and aptitude. “We welcome students and parents and make sure that we clear all their doubts,” said Amit. |
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Apart from caring for wild animals in the Rajaji National Park, the park authorities and forest department now have a bigger task at hand - to keep elephants from fighting among themselves.
Dehradun, March 29
