Dehradun, June 15
After All-India Congress Committee's general secretary Rahul Gandhi's strategy to rope in youth into politics paid dividends in the recently held general election, the Congress has initiated an exercise to attract the youth by organising talent hunt programmes across India.

A two-day talent hunt programme got underway at the Uttarakhand Congress headquarters Dehradun today. A panel of senior Congress leaders, including former Union minister Jagdish Tytler, national president of Youth Congress Ashok Tanwar along with youth leaders Jitinder Singh and Deepinder Hooda, interviewed youngsters who had come from various parts of the state.

Notably, Punjab and Uttarakhand were the pilot projects of Congress to revive the National Students' Union of India (NSUI). Ravneet Singh Bittu became the first elected president of the Punjab Youth Congress and also won the Lok Sabha election. After the success of this experiment, talent hunt programmes were started on directions of Rahul Gandhi.

National president of the Youth Congress Ashok Tanwar said the main objective of organising talent hunt programmes is to provide an opportunity to capable youth to join the Congress. "The talent hunt programmes will convey to the youth that doors of the Congress are open for those who are competent," he said.

Interacting with mediapersons, Tytler said the main objective behind the talent hunt programmes is to bring educated, talented and energetic youth into the Congress fold.

"Continuing with the exercise to strengthen the NSUI, now the party is laying stress on enrolling youngsters into the party's youth wing. We want that youth Congress should have active and competent members and for that talent hunt programmes are the best thing," he said. Tytler also complimented the youth of Uttarakhand, while stating, "I have no hesitation in saying that there is tremendous talent in Uttarakhand."

Giving details about parameters being adopted for selecting the youth, Tytler disclosed that educational qualification, leadership qualities, body language, communication skills experience, determination to work are some of the key areas that are being taken into account during the interviews.

Replying to a query about fewer women turning up for the talent hunt, he said the party is chalking out a plan to encourage the participation of women.

Youth leader Jitinder Singh said in the first phase, talent hunt programmes would be organised to bring able youth into the party fold and thereafter elections will be held in the Youth Congress.

He made it clear that the activities of youngsters joining Congress will be monitored and their performance would be reviewed at constant intervals. He said the party would also observe whether members are sticking to the voluntary ethics being adopted by them at the time of enrolment.

Meanwhile, majority of the youngsters who turned up for the talent hunt programme said it was the glorious past of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi's approach towards the youth that prompted them to join Congress. One of the youngsters hailing from Bengal, Yuvraj Saharan, who appeared for the interview today, said the Congress is a national party with leaders having a visionary approach. 

Dehradun, June 15
Salaries of ad hoc coaches at Parade Ground have not been revised by the government for the past many years. The file for revising the salaries is pending for the past many months and little work has been done on it.

The state government has been following outdated pay schemes for ad hoc coaches. In other states, the pay schemes of ad-hoc coaches have been revised.

Ad hoc coaches, who have played at the national level, receive Rs 7,000 in Uttar Pradesh, Rs 5000 in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh while international players in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh receive Rs 10,000.

Ad hoc baseball coach Ravinderpal Singh, who is preparing his team for the Junior National Tournament to be held in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, said, “The government is ready to spend on state-level teams that play at the national level. But it pays us peanuts.”

Ravinderpal has played at the national level and receives Rs 1000 per month for his services. He said, “Even a labourer earns more than what we receive. Till date, we have heard rumours that the file has been forwarded to the administration and the work will be done soon.”

Boxing coach Durga Thapa said that she receives Rs 1,200 per month. “The salary we can receive in private sector will be much higher,” said Durga.

She hold the unique distinction of being the only woman judge from Uttarakhand in an international boxing championship.

Sport Secretary Utpal Kumar said, “The process of salary revision is on and steps in this regard will be taken soon. 

Roorkee, June 15
Land crunch in this developing town and its periphery has been proving a big hurdle for development-related projects. Construction of ‘Transport Nagar’ (transport area), which is in the pipeline for the past few years, is yet to see the light of the day due to unavailability of land.

Suresh Chand Jain, MLA from Roorkee, said the ‘Transport Nagar’ project was proposed by him about six years, but getting land for it is proving a major hurdle.

“After getting government nod, the Municipal Board was given responsibility of finding the land. However, nothing has been done till date,” said Jain.

In fact, construction of ‘Transport Nagar’ has become the need of the hour here, especially in the wake of the Maha Kumbh Mela next year. With the setting up of big as well as small industrial units in and around the town, vehicular traffic has increased by leaps and bounds.

“Time has come for a specific parking place for trucks and trailers to decrease pressure on roads,” said RP Sharma, vice president of Ambuja Cement factory.

“Drastic increase in traffic results in huge traffic jams on the Roorkee-Haridwar highway everyday. One of the major factors behind this is absence of any specific place for parking of trucks and trailers, which remain parked along the main road all the time.

Therefore, the ‘Transport Nagar’ should be constructed as soon as possible,” said Jain. He said a minimum of 10-acre land is required for the project. “Construction of the proposed ‘nagar’ will also help in decreasing the number of accidents on roads,” added Jain. 

Dehradun, June 15
The Forest Research Institute (FRI) has entered into a MoU with the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO) on technology extension. HESCO’s Founder Director Dr Anil Joshi and Head of Extension FRI Dr Omkar Singh were the two signatories to the MoU on behalf of their institutions. The memorandum will initially be for three years.

While the FRI has some of the best technologies for production of wood products from poplar and eucalyptus, bamboo propagation, ‘katha’ production and sowing technique of eucalyptus hybrid and composting process, HESCO has been at forefront of bakery technology, application of bio-technology, spring-water recharge, fibre utilisation for fancy articles, fruit and vegetable processing techniques and low-cost solar drier.

Senior scientist Sas Biswas and Sunil Agarwal from the Department of Science and Technology, Delhi, were also present on the occasion.Welcoming the MoU, Director, FRI, Dr SS Negi said the MoU will prove to be of immense benefit in taking research to villages.

Dr Anil Joshi said while the country had no dearth of technology, delivering it to the people had proved to be a hassle. 

Haridwar, June 15
Cricketer Kapil Dev Nikhanj was in the city to immerse the ashes of his mother Raj Kumari Nikhanj in the Ganga. Kapil’s mother died in Chandigarh last week. Clad in a white kurta, Kapil Dev, accompanied by relatives, reached Haridwar at about 9 am and immersed the ashes at Kankhal ghat.

The family members then went to Kushawrat ghat where mediapersons and locals had gathered in large numbers to have a glimpse of the champion cricketer.

At Kushawrat ghat, Kapil performed ‘pind daan’ and registered his and his relatives’ names in his ancestral log book of their family priest Purohit Maujum Shobhraj. The ritual was performed by Purohit Rajesh Jha.

Seeing the 230-year record of his lineage, Kapil seemed interested and broke his silence.

Bharat Bhushan, Ramesh Nikhanj, brothers of Kapil, two sisters and two nieces accompanied Kapil to Haridwar. In the afternoon, the Nikhanj family left for Chandigarh.

Anushkha, a class XII student from New Delhi, wanted to take an autograph of Kapil Dev but when she was told about the reason behind Kapil’s visit, she apologised. But the ‘Haryana Hurricane’ obliged a few of his fans.

Dehradun, June 15
Self-help groups (SHGs) in Uttarakhand have reason to cheer as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to engage them to ensure greater banking penetration in the country’s interior rural belt.

Under the plan, the RBI is reportedly mulling greater rural spread by engaging the SHGs as well as primary agriculture credit societies (PACs) as business correspondents (BC).

The BC system entails basic banking transactions through Consumer Service Point (CSP) in villages, which provide essential linkage with the banking system.

“We are awaiting detailed guidelines of the scheme,” said a top official of the RBI, Uttarakhand office.

Unlike other states, self-help groups in the state have little government support despite the fact that they could be the best channels of rural development.

This is especially true in the case of a hill state like Uttarakhand where due to tough geographical conditions, development is suffering on account of their financial exclusion.

Almost all groups here are being managed by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which provide them training and necessary guidance to have access to banking system to run their affairs.

But it is being felt that direct support of the government is necessary to provide teeth to their working and avail benefits of the rural welfare schemes of the government.

But for the active support of the NGOs, there is still a great scope for financial inclusion of rural people in the state especially those living in the hill districts.

There are still a large number of villages in remote areas which need to be brought under purview of SGHs.

Till March, there were 2,017 SHGs eligible for linkage with banks in the state. More than 1,900 are linked with nationalised banks having total savings of Rs 8.84 crore across all banks. The State Bank of India is the leader having 1,054 Self-help groups linked with it. 

Dehradun, June 15
A superb all-round performance by Abhishek helped NIVH Club register a thumping 92-run victory over DAV School at the ongoing U-15 Krishan Devi Garg Memorial Cricket Tournament at Survey Stadium here today.

Batting first, NIVH Club piled a mammoth total of 194 runs in allotted 20 overs.

It was a shaky start for NIVH Club who lost their first wicket at the score of nine runs. Opener Sumeet was dismissed for a duck.

The other opener Rahul smashed 48 runs off 34 balls hitting seven fours and one six.

Middle-order batsman Abhishek supported him well on the other end to make 44 runs off 22 balls accelerating the innings of the team.

Sandeep chipped in with a handy 36 runs of 29 balls.

It was a poor bowling display by DAV School bowlers who gave away 50 runs as extras.

For DAV School bowlers Shankar, Saurav and Pulkeet picked up two wickets each.

Chasing a target of 195 runs, DAV School could only managed to score 102 runs in reply.

It was a fine bowling display by NIVH Club bowlers who bowled a tight line and length throughout the match.

Opener Ayush was the top scorer for DAV School. He made 17 runs of 19 balls, whereas second opener Pulkit made 14 runs of 13 balls.

Lower order batsman Sanjay also chipped in 14 runs. No other batsman showed any resistance as the team was all out for 102 runs.

Abhishek was the star performer for NIVH team. After performing well with the bat he was successful with the ball as well as to claim two wickets.

Sumit and Nishant supported him well on the other end to claim two wickets each.