Dehradun, May 30
Former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has sought introduction of a pricing policy for jatropha to make it farmer-friendly and thus furthering the cause of bio-fuel production.

The former President was addressing the silver jubilee function of ONGC Academy here today.

He said jatropha and algae could pave the way for production of bio-fuel in the country while simultaneously ensuring much needed strengthening of the rural economy.

“We have to look for maximum yield-giving variety of jatropha while also mooting an effective jatropha pricing policy rendering an encouragement to our farmers vis-à-vis jatropha cultivation,” Dr Kalam said.

He also said that it would significantly help in meeting energy requirements while also leading to improvement in per capita income in the rural areas.

Dismissing the notion that bio-fuel production was in any way a threat to food security, Dr Kalam said that with 60 million hectares of wasteland, jatropha cultivation could only bring this wasteland into intelligent usage apart from fulfilling the energy goals of the country.

Referring to present-day energy challenges faced by the country, he reminded the gathering that with the available resources of fossil fuel set to get exhausted within the next 50 to 100 years, alternative sources of energy needed to be tapped fast.

Describing ethanol and bio-fuel as the fuels of the future, he said while oil companies across the globe have put in 600 billion dollars in production of ethanol, Indian oil companies should at least spend 1 billion dollars on such initiatives.

He said the ONGC had a tradition of coming up with visionary leaders and called for its continuation towards ensuring energy availability to the nation.

He said that with enormous tasks ahead of the ONGC, it needed to focus on developing quality human resources to carry forward its growth activities.

Keynote speaker Padma Vibhushan Sundar Lal Bahuguna in his address focused on development -oriented science.

“Today science is putting more emphasis on producing arms of mass destruction. It should have rather worked for the betterment of mankind”, Bahuguna said.

He termed pollution as another formidable challenge before civilised society and called for a united struggle against it.

He appreciated ONGC for its LPG production asserting that it has only helped the cause of saving trees.

Earlier, chairman and managing director, ONGC, RS Sharma, took the opportunity to inform about the initiatives taken by the ONGC towards achieving the goals of energy independence.

Director HR AK Balyan welcomed the delegates to the programme.

The former President also presented the Lifetime Award for Excellence in Human Resource Management to MB Lal, former CMD, HPCL, and R Srinivasan, former member personnel, ONGC. He also released the Technology Memoir of the ONGC.

The ONGC Academy trains graduate trainees, the executive manpower of the company.

Preeti Mathur, executive head, ONGC Academy, apart from several former chairmen and graduate trainees was present on the occasion.

Dehradun, May 30
Unable to get adequate amount of teachers and ‘bhojan matas’, who could cover the length and breadth of the state, and keen to serve mid-day meals to the school students during summer holidays in 11 drought-hit districts, the state government has made slight changes to the programme.

Now the responsibility of providing mid-day meals rests squarely on the shoulders of parents who will be handed over ration (rice) and the cooking cost.

“Most of our teachers expressed their inability to render services as they will be engaged in training courses commencing from June 1,” said MS Bisht, joint director, state mid-day meal cell.

“Also, the bhojan matas, part of the scheme, are not eager to work during holidays,” Bisht added.

“As such parents have been asked to collect the ration and amount from the school.

“This will ensure that the rightful owner gets his share, even in cases where children are away on holidays,” said the joint director.

As of now there are a total of 18,000 bhojan matas employed in the state that may not uniformly represent all districts.

The mid-day meal scheme got under way during the summer holidays for 6 lakh junior and primary schoolchildren from May 25.

The programme started encountering problems after the teachers and members of Village Education Committees raised doubts about the practicality of the scheme that was being conducted during holidays.

“Now during 32 days of the summer holidays, excluding Sundays, the parents will receive ration on behalf of their wards studying in junior school, 3.5 kg rice and Rs 80 as cost of cooking.

“The share of primary schoolchildren will comprise of 4.8 kg of rice and Rs 80 amount towards cost of cooking,” said Anita Chauhan, teacher incharge, mid-day meal, Dehradun.

Haridwar, May 30
Incessant rain lashed the city and put a halt to normal life here.

At several places choked drains, broken sewer pipes and mud slides caused water logging and massive traffic jams.

There was a massive mudslide at the at Laltauro bridge, situated in Mayapuri on Bilkeshwar road, from the adjacent mountain terrain of Bilb Parvat which blocked the crossing road beneath the bridge.

Several vehicles got stuck in the mud accumulated at the bridge. The traffic could move only after an hour when earthmover leveled the road and dug out the mud from the area. Locals complain that this is the norm whenever heavy rainfall lashes the city.

Jatin Kumar a local said, “We have been seeing this from past few years but nothing has been done by the municipality or government to have a full proof arrangement. They only remove the mud by the earth movers which is a temporarily solution.”

Similarly, due to the digging of sewer line, the rainwater gathered at the Bhagat Singh chowk and the situation aggravated with the blocked sewage pipes in the area. Incidentally, the patrol car of Shweta Chaubey, CO traffic, too got stuck in the water log. Later, police had to stop the traffic for a while sighting danger due to the increase in water level.

Similar incidents were reported at Jwalapur, Khanna Nagar, ITI colony, Sri Nath Nagar, Arya Nagar, Kathara Bazaar, Moti Bazaar, station road and on Haridwar-Roorkee highway. Several tourists and foreigners were also stuck in the heavy rain and the accompanying water jams in the city.

Dehradun, May 30
Advocating strict measures on the occasion of ‘World No-Tobacco Day’ today, Dr AK Dewan, oncologist, Prem Hospice, said that every year among the number of cancer cases detected in the state, 50 per cent may be tobacco-related.

“In the cold climate of the state, smoking is a common habit. However, it can be considerably reduced if people quit smoking bidis and cigarettes and chewing gutka or khaini.

“Often mouth, tongue, and esophagus cancers are detected only when they are at an advanced stage and the treatment is very expensive,” said Dr Dewan, leading surgeon and oncologist Ganga Prem Hospice, Rishikesh.

He said that prevalence of smoking among youngsters and young women continues to rise at an alarming rate.

“Unless there is a will to quit smoking on the part of the smoker, anti-smoking therapies cannot be useful, it is the nicotine present in the cigarettes that is responsible for addiction,” said Dr Dewan.

He said that after delaying the pictorial warnings on tobacco packs for two-and-a-half years and even replacing stronger warnings with milder ones, the specified health warnings to be displayed on all tobacco product packs would finally come into effect from tomorrow.

The violation of the provision by producer or manufacturer is a punishable offence with imprisonment and fine.

“The size of the warnings was reduced from 50 per cent of the principal display area to 40 per cent besides exempting large packs from the purview of the packaging and labelling rules, however they would become effective from tomorrow,” said Dr Dewan

With low-levels of literacy, pictorial warnings showing pictures of rotting gums or cancer of the mouth could very effectively convey the message to bidi smokers or gutka chewers.

Tobacco chewing causes leukoplakia- white patches in mouth, submucus fibrosis and trismus-inability to open mouth especially with gutka and supari.

While smoking or tobacco use causes cancer, tuberculosis, chest infection, infertility problem and in case of pregnant women it may lead to unhealthy babies.

Haridwar, May 30
The strike by the medical students on probation of Rishikul Ayurvedic College and Medical Hospital continued for the second consecutive day with hapless patients suffering the most.

The doctors are on an indefinite strike demanding stipend in accordance with the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

With the mood of the junior doctors showing no softening and college management showing disciplinary notice to the agitators it seems the problems for the residents and patients will only aggravate in the coming days.

The probationer doctors belonging to post graduate courses have barred all the work since yesterday morning in the hospital and have locked the gates of all the departments in the college.

Junior doctors gathered at the premise of the medical college and raised slogans against the college management and state government for keeping biased attitude towards them.

Students allege that they have been demanding for quite long time stipend but no attention has been paid to them.

Hemant Kandpal leader of the medical students term it as a harassment of the junior doctors.

“We work almost full fledge and Sixth Pay Commission recommendation is there but we are not benefiting from it.

“We had given a memorandum in this regard but still nothing but assurances were given so we had to go on a strike,” said Kandpal.

In a major turnaround college management has slapped a notice to the medicos on strike for obstructing medical services in the hospital, which is a direct obstruction of the governmental work.

The probationers have been warned through the notice that if the strike continues and if they forcefully lock the OPD and other departments then the students will be individually responsible for any action taken against them.

College management has informed director Unani and Ayurvedic Services Uttarakhand in this respect.

College principal Dr Pradeep termed it as a finance matter totally dependent on the state administration.

“I had earlier submitted the demand of the students to the state government and as it’s a financial matter my role is minimal.

The government can act on this issue and such procedures do take time but closing of the hospital and boycotting classes is not appropriate,” said Bharadwaj.

As the OPD is closed, the patients were seen waiting outside the department from early morning.

Dehradun, May 30
After spending two years in jail on the charges of being a Naxalite, Binayak Sen is a happy man today, as the Apex Court had issued orders granting him bail.

But, in Uttarakhand, Parshant Rahi, a former journalist, is still languishing in jail on similar charges.

His 27-year-old daughter Shikha Rahi, an assistant director in Mumbai, is fighting a similar situation, as her father Prashant Rahi, referred to as Uttarakhand’s “Binayak Sen”, is still languishing in Haridwar Jail.

A former correspondent with one of the well-established national English daily, Rahi has been under arrest since December 21, 2007 on the charges of leading a Maoist movement in the state.

Shikha Rahi, an assistant director of Taare Zameen Par, is fighting a lone battle as she is still waiting for her father’s plea to be heard.

Prashant Rahi, was arrested from a forest area near the state’s border with Nepal, which police say was a temporary base of the Maoists. His friends allege that the police had secretly and illegally confined him for five days from near Rishikesh, when he was shown arrested from the forests of Hanspur Khatta.

The police have charged him with various sections of IPC and have alleged that Rahi was the area commander of the Maoists and was conspiring to carry out subversive activities in the state. A laptop, some CDs, a pen drive and some Maoist literature had allegedly been recovered from him as evidence of his crime. Rahi, who spent years, trying to organise landless labourers, was charged for waging war against the state and sedition.

Prashant Rahi’s friends believe that the state action is a part of the efforts being carried out by the various state governments to show the fear of Maoists to secure hefty amount of funds from the central government in the name of combating naxalism and for this it becomes imperative for them to prove that the state is inflicted with this insurgency.

Earlier, this year his wife Chandrakala was also arrested from Haldwani on similar charges.

Shikha admitted that her father has a strong inclination towards the Left ideology. “My father always stood for non-violence and was involved in the struggle to give a voice to the landless farmers and poor,” she said.

“There are hardly any independent witnesses to second the investigator’s claim. The only seizure shown on record is a laptop owned by Rahi,” said Shikha.

“As per law, no individual can be subjected to solitary confinement for more than three months through his jail period but Rahi has been kept in a solitary cell since the time of his arrest”, said Shikha.

However, top brass of the police administration always remain tight lipped on the issue stating that matter is sub judice.

Uttarakhand DGP Subhash Joshi said, “It is a very sensitive and serious case. We cannot comment on the issue and hamper the trial. Once admitted to the sessions court, it is not appropriate for the police to intervene in any case.”

Dehradun, May 30
Aakash, a premier coaching institute in India for medical and engineering entrance exams, conducted a seminar to discuss the strategies to crack the IIT entrance exam. The institute felicitated 86 students who were selected from the city coaching centres in the IIT-JEE this year.

The city from several years has acclaimed fame for having one of the best schools and coming out with such flying colours in the entrance exam of IIT-JEE has opened doors for aspiring IITians from the state to join the league and become future achievers.

With Aakash institutes expertise over medical coaching, since past two years it started coaching for IIT and with sheer hardwork has produced a remarkable result at an all-India level.

Addressing the gathering JC Chaudhary managing director Aakash said, "We are very happy with our results from Dehradun. With the dedicated team of our teachers we have also been successful in producing engineers.

Discussing the strategies and key rules while taking the IIT entrance exam he said, “A candidate cannot be successful until unless he/she is not positive and is ready to invest one year of complete hard work. With time management it's imperative to be dedicated.”

Dehradun, May 30
The National Union of Journalists Uttarkhand today observed Hindi Journalism Day. At a function held in the city to mark the occasion, NUJ’s national general secretary Brahmadutt Sharma took the opportunity to put forward the concerns of journalists of the state.

He said journalists accreditation committee and advertisement accreditation committee were yet to be constituted. Sharma sought pension facilities for journalists who actively took part in the state agitation.

Special guest Ravindra Nath Kaushik said Uttarakhand has always excelled in journalism. Dr BD Sharma called for prompt intervention on part of NUJ towards redressal of the concerns of journalists in the state.

He also reminded that over a dozen journalists hailing from Uttarakhand are leading the reputed National newspapers across the country.

Dehradun, May 30
It will be a clash between Air India and VCC Mumbai in the final of the 27th All-India Uttaranchal Gold Cup here tomorrow.

In the second semifinal played here today, VCC Mumbai defeated NER Lucknow by five runs.

Batting first, VCC Mumbai scored 158 runs in its allotted 25 overs. VCC Mumbai had a shaky start and lost their first wicket in the second over. The team score was nine runs.

It was middle-order batsman Shrirang Kapse who stabilised the innings.

He made 36 runs off 35 balls. Mohsin Dodhia supported him well on the other end to make 27 balls off 26 balls.

For NER Lucknow, Deepak Yadav took three wickets while Ashwani Madhani took two wickets.

Chasing 159 runs for victory, NER Lucknow was all out for 153 runs. It was a strong start by NER Lucknow as the openers contributed 101 runs in the first 15 overs.

Paul played a 57-run knock off 66 balls and Imran made 54 runs off 51 balls.

After both the openers got out, no other batsman could occupy the crease for long. It was a strong comeback by VCC Mumbai bowlers who rattled the middle order to romp home.

For VCC Mumbai, Amit Patil was the leading wicket taker with four wickets in this two -over spell and Rohit Rane picked up two wickets.