Dehradun, April 29
Leaders of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) today said that national parties had a one-point agenda, to grab power. Accusing the Congress and the BJP of not having any concern for local issues pertaining to the hill state, Shivanand Chamoli, vice-president of the UKD, said it was only the UKD manifesto that laid stress on crucial issues like rights of locals on natural resources, and a check on large-scale migration from the state.

Chamoli said since 1971, at least two lakh people had migrated out.

From 1991 to 2001, as many as 55
villages in the high ranges had been deserted.

“It is unfortunate that people in large numbers are migrating from Uttarakhand and those at the helm of affairs are least bothered.”

He said if UKD candidates makde it to Parliament, they would initiate steps to check the problem.

The UKD leader pointed out that it was sad that delimitation was done on the basis of population. “Because of migration, population in the villages in hill districts is sparse.

As a result, during the delimitation exercise, several villages/areas did not get proper representation vis-à-vis the assembly segments.

Claiming that only a regional party could raise local issues, Chamoli said the right of the people on resources like water, forest and land were among the 52 points raised by the UKD in its manifesto. “We strongly advocate that families whose land has been acquired for various hydel projects be given free power and employment at the project sites.”

Chamoli criticised the Congress for giving “outsiders” the opportunity to represent Uttarakhand in the Rajya Sabha. “Because of almost 60 per cent forest cover, considerable area of the state absorbs carbon dioxide.

“Hence, in return, people residing near forests must be given some kind of relief,” he argued, asking voters to cast their vote for the party that “truly represents” them.

Haridwar, April 29
The BJP election campaign is a little slack in the Haridwar constituency owing to the ticket brawl and party workers having problems seeking votes for Swami Yatendranand who is a new face for the voters. Now Uttarakhand education minister Madan Kaushik, who lost the ticket battle to the Swami, has taken the election campaign charge.

With doubts having raised if Kaushik was working whole-heartedly for the party success, Kaushik, by taking active part in the campaign, is trying to clear such speculation.

For the past two weeks, he has been leading the campaign and is present at all gatherings, essaying the role of a political mentor to Swami Yatindranand. Inaugurating an election office in Ranipur, Kaushik tried to raise passions, saying that this election was about party “swabhiman”.

Having a dig at Congress candidate Harish Rawat, he said the Congress had not been able to find any suitable candidate from among its cadres in Haridwar that had to “import” one. Kaushik said Rawat had been defeated by state BJP chief Bachi Singh Rawat four times and one more defeat would finish his career. Insiders say it had been on directions of the high command that Kaushik had begun to sweat it 
out for Swami Yatendranand Giri.

Dehradun, April 29
Another 45 villages will be shifted from Tehri Garhwal district to make way for the Tehri Dam reservoir in Uttarakhand, affecting 118 families.These villages had been left out due to survey discrepancies. 

A recentsurvey by the Geological Survey of India and the Survey of India in Bhilangana and Bhagirathi valleys revealed the need for shifting these 45 villages. Earlier, surveys had identified these villages as falling above the 853 RL metres, which is the cut off limit for reservoir waters at the dam. Thus, these villages had been left out from the process of rehabilitation.

The administration has started preparing for the task. Inhabitants from five villages, Sarot, Doban, Jaspur Madhya Chak, Nakot and Chathi, have even been shifted out after mutual agreement. The rest of the 40 villages will be shifted later.

Director of rehabilitation and district magistrate Saujanya said the maximum number of affected families were from the Bhilangana valley. 

Till date, as many as 5,187 families from 125 villages have been uprooted. As many as 2,806 complaints by Tehri Dam oustees were received by the grievance cell. 
Out of these 1,940 cases are still pending. Now the rehabilitation of 118 families comes as another challenge. 

The affected 45 villages include Hadiyani, Neytee, Hiryara, Kalbagee, Chinyalison, Kumrana, Syansu, Chaam, Baldogi, Sarphal and Bhaliyana.

Dehradun, April 29
A health policy for school children is glaringly missing in the Uttarakhand Education Department’s scheme of things. As a result most of the government schools do not have a health policy in place.

There is no provision for the services of an in-house doctor or a nurse in most of the state run schools.

“Government schools do not have any plan laid out to tackle medical emergencies and I doubt even if they have a first-aid box,” said Vijay Tyagi, a parent.

Schools are dependent on health programmes conducted once in a while under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) that envisages School Health Programme, covering selected schools once in six months.

The medical examination of children includes detection of anemia, deficiency Vitamin A, eye related ailments, skin diseases, respiratory infections, lack of personal hygiene and other health related matters.

“Under the NRHM, a yearly target of undertaking checkup in 8,628 schools benefiting 70 lakh children has been setup,” said Dr Dr Anil Sharma, additional director, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

The National Council of Education and Research Training (NCERT) has stated that health is a critical input for the overall development of the child and it influences significantly in the retention of the subject being taught and even in the completion of school.

Further, it can also work in combating malnutrition.

The World Health Organsiation (WHO) has also recommended making School Health Programmes a part of school curriculum in all CBSE affiliated schools.

After a Global Health Survey conducted by WHO pointed out absence of hygiene awareness among students. It had also recommended that school health should not be restricted to health programmes only but schools should frame health policies for their students.

The National Curriculum Frameworks 2005 of NCERT has also stated that health is a critical input for the all-round development of the child.

The subject of healthcare in schools has been much in focus following the death of a 17-year-old Aakriti Bhatia of Modern School, New Delhi, after she suffered a serious asthma attack while at school.

An inquiry has been ordered by the Chief Minister into the incident that shocked the country.

Dehradun, April 29
Mayo College, Welham’s Girls White, Welham’s Girls Blue and Modern School Delhi won their respective matches at 3rd Welham’s Girls School All-India Golden Jubilee Basketball Tournament underway at Welham Girls School, here today.

Mayo College Girls’ School, Ajmer beat PPS, Nabha by 38-22. Vedika was the top scorer for the team with 12 points, whereas for PPS team Gurvinder was the top scorer with 12 points.

Welham’s Girls White defeated Hope Town Girls by 34-22 points. Aishwarya was the top scorer the team with 8 points. Welham’s Girls Blues won their match against Woodstock by a convincing margin of 39-12. Garima Singh was top scorer for the team with 11 points.

Hope Town and Modern School. Modern School team won the match by 27-19. 

Dehradun, April 29
Raksha Pawar has been appointed as a captain of the u-14 Football National Team that left for Sri Lanka today for participation in Asia Football Festival. India had stood runners up at this very tournament, last year.

Earlier, Raksha was selected as the vice-captain in the national u-13 team, which participated in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) u-13 girls Football Festival 2007. Indian team stood at the second position in the tournament outclassing Japan, Myanmar, Singapore and Vitenam.

Raksha’s father, Deepak Pawar said, “I am overjoyed with the achievement of my daughter. She has been doing well at the national circuit since the time she was selected as the vice-captain of u-13 team”.

Raksha, who played for Cantt Blues Club, started her football journey when she got selected for u-13 girls team of the state. She played in u-13 National Football Festival held in Bhubaneshwar and performed brilliantly by scoring four goals in the tournament. Subsequently, Raksha was picked up for the Indian camp held at Bhopal this year.

Dehradun, April 29
Hilton School, The Presidency School International and Brooklyn School won their respective matches at the ongoing 14th Gardner Inter-School Indoor Cricket Tournament at St. Thomas College, Dehradun, here today.

In the first match Hilton School beat Doon Bloosm School by 14 runs. Batting first Hilton School went on to scorer 59 runs in their allotted six overs. Geetang was the top scorer for the team with 21 runs. Chasing the victory target of 60 runs, Doon Bloosm School could only mange to scorer 45 runs.

In the second match The Presidency School International outclassed Raja Rammohan Roy Academy by three wickets. The Raja Rammohan Roy Academy scored 55 runs in six overs. Chasing the victory target of 56 runs The Presidency School International reached the target with three wickets in hand.

In the last match of the day Brooklyn School won by one runs against SelaQui World School. Brooklyn School scored 52 runs in its allotted six overs. Chasing the victory target of 53 runs, Sela Qui World School could only manage to score 51 runs.

Meanwhile, Carman School, St Jude’s and Brooklyn School won their respective matches here yesterday.

In the first match, Carman School got a walkover over The Heritage School.

In the second match, St Jude’s defeated Doon Public School by four runs.

Batting first, St Jude’s School scored 50 runs in six overs. Chasing the victory target of 51 runs Doon Public School was could only manage to score 46 runs.

In the third match was played between Brooklyn School and Carman School, Premnagar.

Brooklyn emerged victorious. Batting first Carman set a target of 63. Brooklyn achieved the target with four wickets in hand.

In the last match, Carman School, Dalanwala defeated Bala Hissar Academy by six wickets. 

Dehradun, April 29
Garhwal Sport Academy clinched the Hukum Singh Memorial T-20 Cricket Tournament held at Survey Stadium, here today. In the final, Garhwal Sporting Academy defeated Uttar Pradesh with 45 runs. Yogender Chauhan was declared the man of the series.

Garhwal Sport made a total of 190 runs in 20 overs. Yogender gave a scintillating performance by smashing 57 runs off 26 balls. In his innings of 57 runs he hit six fours and four sixes. Second opener also played a useful knock of 16.

Ashish Joshi and Manish scored 42 runs and 37 runs, respectively. For UP team Shankar and Sanjay were the pick of the bowlers with two wickets each.

UP team could only scored 145 runs. UP lost its opener Jitender for a duck.

Shankar tried to stabilise the inning as he scored 45 runs. Bhupendar was the second highest scorer for the team with 21 runs and lower order batsman Suraj contributed 15 runs.

For Garhwal Sport, Surendar was the lead wicket taker with three wickets. Yogender and Navinash took two wickets each.

Dehradun, April 29
Under the aegis of Quality Council of India (QCI), Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) organisation, Dehradun chapter, today organised a daylong workshop discussing various means to uplift the quality of Indian education system.

Topics discussed school governance its leadership, responsibility and authority, mission, control of records, curriculum and teaching-learning process were discussed by experts of QCI and answered teachers’ queries.

“This workshop under the guidance of QCI with a sole motive to know how city schools can ensure quality education. The accreditation standard followed by QCI provides framework for the effective management and delivery of the holistic education program aims at overall development of the students, said M Chaturvedi, principal Kendriya Vidyalaya.

Dehradun, April 29
Self-financed BEd colleges of Dehradun have decided to conduct their counselling session on their own very soon. The counselling had been delayed by eight months due to the alleged indecision of the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University to which these colleges are affiliated.

The confusion had begun after the university was granted Central University status.

The university might not conduct entrance test for the next BEd session also.

Finding itself in a fix, the Association of Self-financed BEd Colleges of Uttarakhand have decided to conduct the counselling session itself.

Sunil Agrawal, Secretary of the association said, “We have decided to conduct the counselling on our own for which we will soon be publishing a notice.” He said they would follow the same procedure as followed by the university for the process.

Reservation would also be given to the students as was given by the university, when it used to conduct the counselling for them. Sunil said the association had written two letters to the university to bring the delay in its notice.But when there was no response on the part of the varsity, he said.