Dehradun, June 3
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) has asked for the file of Anshu Nautial’s murder case from the police administration. Khanduri has instructed the Director-General of Police Subhash Joshi to send the case file to his office at the earliest. Highly placed sources stated that Khanduri has taken serious note of Anshu’s murder that rocked the state capital on May 23.

Anshu’s body was found in a gunny bag near the residence of District Magistrate Amit Singh Negi on May 23.

Khanduri has assured that matter will be investigated. After having a look at the case file, he will meet Anshu’s family. — Suryakant Dhasmana, Senior Congress leader

Though with the arrest of Praveen Chawla, the Dehradun police claimed to have solved the blind murder case but the family members of the victim have charged the cops of not arresting all persons who were involved in the crime.

For the past few days, family members of the victim are on the roads staging demonstrations and demanding a CBI probe into the matter.

The aggrieved family had also requested the state government to provide them financial assistance.

While the top brass of the police administration including IG (Garhwal) MA Ganapathy had categorically said that they had interrogated all suspects and only Praveen Chawla was involved in the crime, Anshu’s brother Harish Nautial had accused the cops of taking the matter “casually”.

“The police have probed the matter thoroughly. There is no evidence against anyone except Praveen. Now Praveen will have to undergo a lie-detector test in order for us to know whether anyone else was involved in Anshu’s murder,” said Ganapathy.

After senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana took up the matter with Khanduri today, the Chief Minister assured him that the matter would be probed thoroughly.

“Khanduri told me that he had already taken cognisance of the matter and had summoned the case file from the DGP. Khanduri also assured that matter will be investigated.

“After having a look at the case file, he will also meet the victim’s family,” said Dhasmana while adding that the CM has also assured that the state government would look into the possibility of providing financial assistance to the family.

Dehradun, June 3
The much-delayed admission process to private self-financed B.Ed institutes affiliated to HNB Garhwal University could be started without further delay as the Nainital High Court has rejected the plea of certain institutes for validating the admissions wrongly made by them against the state quota seats.

With this, the ball is now in the court of the university which was earlier directed by the High Court to complete the counselling process for state quota seats by June 30.

“But the university should not waste any more time as the HC has given it time up to the end of this month. The date of counselling should be fixed at the earliest in the interest of the students because the admissions in private institutes for the 2008-09 session has already been delayed by about nine months,” said Sunil Aggarwal, secretary, Association of Self-Financed B.Ed Institutes, Uttarakhand.

At stake are about 2,300 state quota seats in 39 institutes affiliated to the university. The university had conducted entrance test in July 2008 for around 6,000 seats in more than 50 self-financed government as well as private colleges. The university had declared the result in October 2008.

Though the process of counselling and admissions had been completed in government institutes but the fate of aspirants seeking admission in private institutes had been hanging in balance. They were not in a position to apply elsewhere outside the state.

The university had declared counselling for the state quota seats in 21 institutes from February 26 to March 3.

The remaining 18 institutes have been excluded from the process due to allegations of irregularities in the admission process. Of these nine institutes moved the HC.

The HC had then allowed counselling for the state quota seats in these institutes but seven institutes filled all seats against management and the state quota which violated the rules of National Council of Technical Education (NCTE).

These institutes had filed a special petition in the HC for upholding the admissions they had made against state quota seats. But the HC rejected their plea in the order passed yesterday.

These institutes will now have to surrender these state quota seats for which the university has already been directed by the HC to hold counselling.

The university will do well to put this process in motion as soon as possible as it will pave the way for starting the counselling for the management quota seats in the private institutes, added Aggarwal.

Dehradun, June 3
For a 22-year-old student, who did her schooling from the non-descript township of Saharanpur, visiting Antarctica was unimaginable till the day she got a confirmation call from the Centre of Antarctica Oceanography in Goa, a body instrumental in the country’s preparations for expeditions to Antarctica.

Neelu Singh is among a few students in the country who got an opportunity to visit and undertake research studies at Antarctica.

After completing her MSc from the Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun, Neelu Singh applied for the Student Participation Scheme and finally made it after undertaking gruelling tests.

She finally left Cape Town on January 4 for Antarctica which was home to her till mid-March.

She collected as many as 180 water samples and 10 to 15 air samples looking for the presence of mercury at the two sites of research that included India’s present Antarctica station Maitri and the proposed Larsman hills.

“There is no baseline data available on this subject and thus sampling was aimed to fill up the gap in that direction,” Neelu said.

She will now be studying the samples at the Centre for Antarctica Oceanography, Goa.

For Neelu, it was certainly a tough task braving harsh climatic conditions which involved high-wind speeds and sub-zero temperatures.

“At times, it was tough walking in freezing temperatures but for me, the tour was more of an adventure than a hassle,” she said.

Neelu, who hails from Saharanpur, studied at Guru Nanak Girls Inter College there. She admitted that she may be the first one in Saharanpur to visit Antarctica in the capacity of a student.

“While scientists have been regular participants in India’s expeditions, for a student to get a similar opportunity is certainly very fortunate,” said Neelu. She hopes to continue with her research in polar areas and now aspires to visit the Arctic.

Neelu added, “The Student Participation Scheme provides opportunities for students to visit Antarctica which till date has been the fiefdom of scientists.”

Dehradun, June 3
Acting on a complaint by students of the Sri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical Sciences, Patelnagar, the Uttarakhand government has issued orders directing the institute to stick to the old fee structure and file a reply in this regard in ten days.

The students in their complaint had alleged that the institute authorities were charging more fees from what had been fixed.

The orders issued by the Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Keshav Desiraj has asked the principal of the institute to furnish proof of compliance of the order.

He also warned that punitive action would be initiated against the institute authorities if it failed to do so within ten days.

The order made it clear that as per the previous government order, the institute could charge maximum Rs 30,000 in addition to the fixed tuition Fee as well as Rs 1,000 on account of examination Fee and mess charges.

But the students had alleged that the institute was charging more than this amount. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) members have been protesting against the institute from the past one month.

Along with the protesting students, state NSUI president Sangram Pundir had also met Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pandey in this regard. 

Dehradun, June 3
Municipal Corporation and Dehradun administration has proposed a permanent spot in Parade Ground for holding demonstrations on the pattern of Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

But the residents as well as traffic cops have reservations about its effectiveness in ensuring orderliness in vehicular and public movement in the heart of the city.

The Municipal Corporation has been against the use of Gandhi Park opening on the main Rajpur Road for political and trade union activities.

Hardly a day goes without a demonstration in it, which creates traffic hurdles in the city’s main thoroughfare.

With this in mind, the administration has now identified a spot in Parade Ground, separated from Gandhi Park by a road, for the purpose.

A team of Municipal Corporatin and MDDA officials jointly visited the place yesterday.

But the question arises whether the move would clinch the purpose.

“The official move may prove counter-productive because the problem of congestion will be shifted to another public place close to where it was earlier existed.

“The only difference I see is that now the problem will have official sanction,” said Sanjay Arora, a shopkeeper in nearby Karanpur area.

The traffic cops are not amused either because they foresee greater volume of traffic near Kanak Chowk.

The proposed spot has been identified in the corner of the Parade Ground touching the chowk.

For this reason, it seems all the more ironical that this corner of the Parade Ground is going to be shifted about 7 meters inside to facilitate widening of the chowk and subsequent freer movement of traffic from Lansdowne Chowk towards Vikas Bhawan.

At the same time, the authorities seem to have lost sight of the fact that the selection of the proposed spot on the other side of the re-demarcated boundary would increase the movement of traffic and people coming to participate in demonstrations,” said some traffic cops on the condition of anonymity.

But the administration has its own reasons.

The District Magistrate Amit Singh Negi said other places elsewhere in the city were inspected but these were not found to be feasible due to various factors.

The choice fell upon Parade Ground because there was no other open space in the city as big as this one. It can accommodate good number of vehicles for parking purpose.

“I do not foresee traffic bottlenecks as there are roads all around this place. Moreover, the organising demonstrations here will not cost other public parks the activities they are meant for,” he said.

Dehradun, June 3
IMB and DSP won their respective matches at Kendriya Karamchari T-20 Tournament underway at Survey Stadium, here today.

The first match of the was played between the SOI and IMB teams. SOI team won the match against IMB.

Batting first SOI team piled modest total of 118 runs in 19.5 overs. SS Rawat was the highest scorer for the team with 37 runs, followed by Ashok Rana who made 28 runs.

For IMB team Radhe Sham and L Das picked up 7 wickets among themselves.

Radhe Sham picked up four wickets, whereas L Das took three wickets.

Chasing the victory target of 119 runs IMB team reached the target with seven wickets in hand.

Jatin was the highest scorer with 43 runs followed by Anil Kumar 34 runs and Arvind who made 22 runs.

In the second match of the day that was played between DSP and CA teams.

DSP team registered a thumping nine wickets victory over CA team.

Batting first CA team piled only 104 runs in 20 overs. For the team VS Negi was the highest scorer with 51 runs. Raj Kumar took two wickets for DSP team.

Chasing the victory target of 105 runs DSP team reached the target in 19.4 overs with nine wickets still remaining in hand.

Ajay Kumar was the highest scorer for his team as he score good 69 runs and Sanjay Kumar scored 17 runs.

Dehradun, June 3
Looking for ways to augment revenue resources, the state government would do well to withdraw rebate on petrol and diesel as the consumers are not likely to feel the pinch due to the reduced prices, said officials.

Though, the government is not thinking on these lines as it prepares for the annual budget. But there is a strong feeling in the official circles that the move would mean good economics especially because the government faces no political compulsion after LS election.

Interestingly, a proposal in this regard has already been sent to the finance department. A top official, however, did not rule out the possibility. “We may resort to it under emerging fiscal pressure. In the ongoing crunch situation, it is just precautionary measure to augment resources as and when needed,” he said.

He added that the benefit of cheaper petrol and diesel will still be there. As such, it may not evoke adverse public reaction. The government gave the rebate of one rupee each on both commodities in the wake of nationwide hue and cry raised after drastic hike in their prices in June, last year.