Haridwar, May 5
While the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party leaders are raking up the hill-plain divide issue, the Rashtriya Kranti Dal, which was earlier the Maidani Kranti Dal, has decided to drop the issue this time round.

Instead, the Dal has come up with the issue of apathetic attitude of the state government towards the Muslim community and other backward castes.

Mohammed Masood Madani, founder of the Dal, today lashed out at political parties for using them as a mere vote bank. "Since the first general election, Congress has been using Muslims as a mere vote bank and has done nothing for development of the community," said Madani.

He also cited this as the reason for founding a separate party so that not only Muslims, but all secular people from other religions come under one roof and become the real voice of the people.

Condemning the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party for igniting the hill-plain divide, Masood said it was a blow to the religious harmony prevalent in the holy state of Uttarakhand. "People of the hills and plains are living in harmony, so what is the problem with these politicians?" he questioned. "Our party is campaigning against this," he added. Party candidate from Haridwar Mohammed Abbas said brotherhood and harmony are top on his poll agenda.

Meanwhile, the RKD got a major boost today after the Indian Bahujan Samajwadi Party decided to support Mohammed Abbas. 

Dehradun, May 5
It appears that economic slowdown has failed to have much impact on the real estate sector in Uttarakhand if revenue collection, in terms of stamp duty and registration fee, in the fiscal ending this March is any indication.

As per official figures, the fall in revenue was 15 per cent in the financial year 2008-09. It was 22 per cent during the financial year 2007-08 after which recession set in.

“The department has been able to collect Rs 357 crore as stamp duty and registration fee, including the court fee, in the last fiscal accounting for about 1.16 lakh documents. In a way, we can say that slowdown has not had much impact in the realty sector, as compared to 2007-08,” said AK Pandey DIG, Stamps and Registration, Uttarakhand.

Market analysts, however, attribute lesser fall in revenue in the recession-it last financial year to local factors. The sharp fall of 22 per cent in 2006-07 is largely attributed to drastic upward revision of circle rates of property in November 2007.

The reduction in circle rates after much hue and cry in February and March 2008, however, boosted property transactions.

Another reason that discouraged the transactions was the amended Land Act in 2007, which barred outsiders from buying more than 250 square metres of land for residential purpose.

But the corrective measure of reducing the stamp duty by one per cent in April 2008 helped in arresting the fall in revenue. Notably, Stamps and Registration Department is the third biggest revenue grosser in the state after Commercial Tax and Excise Departments.

The trend of revenue collection was steadily increasing since 2001 when Uttarakhand came into being, but was broken in pre-recession financial year 2007-08 when the department collected Rs 424 crore as compared to Rs 546 crore in 2006-07. 

Hardiwar, May 5
After reports of illegal felling of trees inside the Rajaji National Park in the recent past, the Park authorities today shot dead one among the alleged smugglers while he was trying to axe Teak trees.

During the wee hours on Monday, in the Sendhli belt of Dhaulkhand East Range falling in the Beriwada block of the Rajaji Park, forest guards shot at some miscreants who were trying to axe Teak trees.

While one of them was killed, two of his accomplices were injured in the shoot-out. Four others, however, managed to escape.

Two days ago, at the spot where the incident occurred, forest employees had found logged Sagaun trees due to which the vigil was intensified here.

On the day of the shoot-out, forest guards, on seeing suspicious activity in the area, initially warned the miscreants who opened fire with country-made pistols on the former.

In retaliation, forest guards too opened fire killing one of them, who was later identified as Suleman. The injured, identified as Shamsher and Khushnood, were taken to the district hospital from where they were referred to Dehradun hospital.

Rajaji National Park director SS Rassailly said the incident was unfortunate, but forest guards resorted to firing as a last resort.

Earlier in March, nine Sagaun trees were axed and smuggled from the Motichur range of the Park, which is just 100 metres away from the Dehradun-Rishikesh-Haridwar highway.

In another such incident in 2003, 150 Teak trees were axed and smuggled from the Park. Notably, the price of one Sagaun tree varies from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000. Way back in 1994, smugglers had gunned down two forest employees, Harpal Singh and Naresh, after a confrontation. Meanwhile, vigil in the Park has been intensified and several places in and around the Park have been raided to nab the absconding smugglers. 

Roorkee, May 5
Two persons have been arrested on charges of preparing synthetic diesel from kerosene oil and smuggling liquor from Haryana into the state, here today.

The police seized 117 barrels, as many as 47 of which were filled with synthetic diesel, kerosene oil and chemicals, that were being used to prepare the diesel. In addition, 25 cases of English liquor were recovered from the residence of the accused, Samrat Sharma, from Hallu Majra village, around 20 kms from Roorkee.

Rajesh Saini, also a resident of Hallu Majra, was also held in this regard. The liquor was smuggled from Haryana for the forthcoming elections, said the police. However, they remain tightlipped about the political party or politician for whom it was brought.On a tip-off, a police party, led by ASP/SHO Sadanand Date, conducted a raid at Samrat’s house.

Giving details, Circle Officer, Manglore, PK Roy said, “Using chemicals and some salts, the miscreants used to de-colourise the kerosene oil before converting it into synthetic diesel, which they usually sold to farmers apart from the local market. We have confiscated all the illegal material from the house of the accused.”

A case under the Essential Commodities Act and Excise Act has been registered at the Bhagwanpur Police Station in this regard. 

Roorkee, May 5
To meet the growing demands of IT sector in the country and the world as well, the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) is all set to enhance the employment skills of engineering graduates for the IT sectors.

According to a report by the NASSCOM-McKinsey, the IT sector would grow at a rate of 25 per cent to reach a level of US $ 60 billion by 2010.

“With this development and the growth of the sector, our country would need about 2.3 million-strong IT and BPO workforce by then to maintain its current market share according to the report,” said Dr Vinod Kumar, IIT professor and head of Continuing Education Center of the institution.

However, our supply projections indicate a shortfall of nearly 0.5 million qualified employees - nearly

70 per cent of which will be concentrated in the BPO industry.

“Seeing the projection of anticipated 15 per cent growth rate of enrolment in engineering courses, there is no problem at all as far as the numbers are concerned. But where the actual problem lies is the employability of the engineering graduates,” said Dr Vinod Kumar.

“Most of our technical graduates and general college graduates do not fulfill the demands of offshore IT and BPO industries as they lack many required skills,” said Dr Vinod, referring to the reports by experts.

According to such a report, currently, only about 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of general college graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore Industries, respectively.

“As countries from around the world enter the market and the competition for contracts intensifies, India must improve the quality and skills of its workforce”, added Dr Vinod.

To bridge the gap between the knowledge/skills of engineering graduates and the needs of the industry, an eight-week long course on Finishing School programme is being organised by the Continuing Education Center of the institution.

“Its main objective is to enhance the employability of engineering graduates for the IT and ITES sector by brushing up their knowledge of core engineering subjects and by imparting them soft and IT skills”, said Dr Vinod.

The course, which includes training in group discussion and interview skills, other weekly assignments and building up soft skills, has been started on the recommendation of a working group, which was set up by the Ministry of Human Recourse Development (Government of India) in 2006.

In an effort to cover the maximum part of the country, the course is being organised across the country by dividing it into four zones and by involving 18 different institutes of national repute under the co-ordination of IIT-R.

The institutes include NIT Allahabad, NIT Silchar, NIT Surathkal, MANIT Bhopal, NIT Kurukshetra, NIT Agartala, SVNIT Surat, NIT Durgapur, NIT Calicut, NIT Warangal, MNIT Jaipur, NIT Hamirpur, NIT Trichy, NIT Jalandhar, IIITD&M Jabalpur, NERIST Itanagar and ISM Dhanbad.

“The programme would provide an opportunity for students, who have not got jobs through campus placements, to reinforce their skills and acquire industry-specific knowledge from trained faculty of IITs and experts of IT and ITES industries. Basically, it is meant to address the serious situation that threatens India's position as a leading provider of IT and ITES”, said up Dr Vinod.

A test would also be conducted by the NASSCOM NAC-Tech (NASSCOM Assessment of Competence-Tech) -an employment-benchmarking test for the participants at the end of the program. 

Dehradun, May 5
Constable Nizam Ali did state proud by winning a gold at the Asian Power Lifting Competition that was organised at Udaypur (Rajasthan).

He lifted 462.5 kg in the championship, which included 180 kg in Dad Lift category, 190 Squat and 92.5 kg in bench press.

He is the first state policeman who had won a gold at the Asian level power lifting championship. Director General of Police (DGP) awarded him a cash prize of 10,000.

Dehradun, May 5
A month has passed since the disappearance of a deaf and dumb girl, from a residential school, but the Police authorities have not been able to make any headway in the case that is getting more complex with each passing day.

The matter was exposed when the father of the 17-year-old girl, incensed with the attitude of the police authorities today accused them of incompetence and doing precious little to locate his child.

Since the last one month Rakesh Verma has been running from pillar to post in search of his daughter, Priyanka Verma, who disappeared from the hostel premises of Nanhi Duniya, Badir Vidyalya, a residential school for deaf and dumb children located at Kalidas road here.

Hailing from Hardoi in Lucknow, Priyanka had been studying at the school from last five years until her disappearance on April 1, this year.

Though, the school principal had lodged a complaint about the missing girl on the same day at Dhara Chowki.

Baffled by the incident the school principal, Kumud Joshi said, “Such an incident had never occurred in the past.

“We had inserted advertisements in newspapers and even advertised on 
television but so far, we have not been able to trace the girl.

“I had personally gone to Selaqui after we received a call from a local Dhaba, but our hunt did not yield any results.”

As many as 120 boys and girls study in the school but there is no guard or chowkidar was on duty during the daytime today. The campus had a small irregular fencing and an equally small gate, clearly not capable of providing proper security to the children living here.

“Our chowkidar is on duty from 5 pm onwards and through the night. He has been working in the school from last 12 years.

“Infact, he was the first one who informed us about the disappearance of the girl. And during the day there is a cook and a matron to look after the kids,” said the principal.

“The matron had informed that the was keen to go home and was feeling home sick and kept repeating to the matron that she knows which train to catch to reach home.

But we did not detect anything amiss by her behaviour,” said a school teacher, Kamla Nawani.

Meanwhile, the Dehradun SSP Amit Sinha said the matter has been brought to his notice and a search is on for the missing girl.

Dehradun, May 5
Uttarakhand’s u-16 boy’s and girl’s team would leave for the 26th Youth National Championship to be held at Mumbai from May 9 to 16. Avinash would lead the boys’ team. The other team members are:

Atul, Saurab, Veer Rana, Samarth, Rajan, Rishab, Mudit, Azaz, Abhay, Shashank, D Pratab, Yograj.

Uttarakhand u-16 basketball team poses for the camera. Tribune photos: Vinod Pundir

Neeraj Naudiyal is the coach for the boys’ team and Devender Prasad is the team manager.

The girls’ team comprises:

Shonika Rana, Aishwarya Bansal, Spreeha Agarwal, Saloni Goenka, Manisha Singh, Nidhi Rana, Paridhi Baluni, Anjali Bisht, Pallavi Gandhi, Garima Bateja, Nandini Karnal and Deeksha Panwar.

Kiran Nainwal is the coach for girls team and Devender Prasad is the team manager.

Dehradun, May 5
Guru Nanak Academy and Moravian Institute won their respective matches at Inter-Council School Sub-Junior Boys Hockey Tournament, underway at Guru Nanak Academy, here today.

In the first match, Guru Nanak Academy won the match against The Aryan School by 2-0. Abhishek Thapliyal scored the first goal for Guru Nanak Academy in the 24 minute of the game. The team scored its second goal in the 43rd minute of the match through Nihal Kukreti. The Aryan School failed to score a goal in the entire match.

In the second match Moravian Institute defeated Marshall School by 5-1. For Marshal Decha Namayl opened the account in the 23rd minute of the match. Thereafter, Moravian Institute's Shailesh scored a hat-trick scoring a goal in the 29th, 35th and 39th minute of the match. Akash scored the fifth goal for Moravian Institute. For Marshal School Amrit was the only scorer.