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Rain puts schoolchildren in a muddle
Chopper link for remote areas
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Coaching centres take students for a ride
Dishing out pictures crystal clear
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Rain puts schoolchildren in a muddle
Dehradun, September 10 Life in the city has been thrown out of gear. The Bindal and Rispana rivers are overflowing, leading to inundation of low-lying areas. All roads in downtown areas were water-logged today. The situation turned worse in the afternoon when the schools closed. Schoolchildren were a harried lot with jams at all major crossings. Major rivers in the state are in spate.There are reports of landslides at various stretches in the hills. With the Met officials predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours, the scenario looks grim. The twin shrines of Gangotri and Yamunotri have been cut off with debris coming onto connecting roads. The Ganga and the Yamuna too are seeing a sudden gush of water while smaller water bodies across the state are spilling over. In the border district of Uttarkashi, waters from Halara Kad, Miyagaad, Kamalnadi and other smaller rivers have caused disruption of the Mori Sankar motorway. The road to Har-Ki-Dun remains cut off with debris rolling onto the roads near Fafrana. Road communication at Arakot, Naitwar and Jakhol also stands affected due to landslides. In the neighbouring district of Tehri, almost 12 roads in Ganshali are blocked with the debris.The Public Works Department has had a tough time removing the same and making the road fit for transport. In Karanprayag, the key Karanprayag-Gairsen road saw the debris coming down due to landslides. Similar incidents have occurred in Simli and Tharali areas. The traffic at the Dewal Mudalee road has been affected with a rivulet overflowing at Kamleegaad. Debris has obstructed traffic on the Deval Swan road too. Conditions have deteriorated in Dewal Khaita near Naldhuara. In Pindar valley area of Thareli, a landslide has damaged terrace agriculture fields, the worst-hit being Kahribagar area. The Ased-Simli, Dungree-Prakhal roads have been washed away. Roads in the Pokhri region constructed under the PM’s Gramin Sarak Yojana have been washed away in the gushing waters and a couple of houses destroyed in the process. Tumbling debris has blocked the Augustmuni-Kamsaal motorway as well. The national highway connecting Gangotri that has been damaged in Halagu area remains blocked. The district authorities are waiting for the rain to stop before starting repairs works. The Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre in Dehradun said it was monitoring the situation and so far no loss of life had been reported. “We are in touch with administration at various districts and monitoring the situation,” said Piyush Rautela, Executive Director. He said the centre had provided adequate rescue and relief equipment to every district to meet any exigency. The Dehradun municipal authorities seemed helpless as dirt and filth spilled over on roads. The authorities claimed sudden rains had caught them unawares. “We had cleaned up drains all across the city before the start of the monsoon... Things do get out of hand in case of sudden downpour,” said Dr Gurupal Singh, a senior More rains in the next 24 hours could pose an even greater challenge to the authorities. Residents of the capital town blame the civic authorities for their
woes.
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Chopper link for remote areas
Encouraged by the incentive given by the Government of India, the government here has planned for provision of helicopters services in the entire state. “We have planned 40 helipads. Out of these 22 are complete,” said Prakash Pant, state planning and parliamentary affairs minister who was earlier tourism minister of the state. Due to the huge presence of Army and paramilitary forces such as ITBP and SSB in the state, 24 helipads are already functional. If these 40 new helipads come up by next year, the number state would go up to 64. “Besides, we have three air strips and two aerodromes. Our airstrips at Gauchar and Chinyali Saur have the facility for landing 18-seater Dornier planes, while the one at Naini-Saini in Pitthoragarh district has the infrastructure for the landing of 70-seater ATR planes. The aerodromes at Pantnagar and Jolly Grant are capable of handling Air Bus-320 category planes,” informed Pant. PC Sharma, secretary, civil aviation, said the plan to cover the entire state with helicopter services has been inspired by the model in northeastern states. Pawan Hans services are already in operation for Kedarnath Dham. “If the helicopter service to Kedarnath shrine can run smoothly, the same can be true for the entire state,” said Sharma. He added that besides running passenger services, the helipads would also cater to VIP landings and disaster management. “These helipads are being constructed at the district headquarters and disaster-prone places,” he said. Notably, helicopter services in the country have grown by leaps and bounds. The number of helicopters has increased from 109 in 2003 to 198 in 2008. Even the civil aviation ministry, Government of India, has launched a scheme to construct helipads in hilly and remote areas of the country and Rs 75 lakh financial assistance is being provided for each such venture. Under this scheme, two helipads are being constructed at Magan and Getan Khola in Sikkim. “We have also applied under the scheme,” said Sharma. Meanwhile, the state has planned to offer five facilities free of cost to private operators interested in running helicopter services here. “We are offering free electricity, drinking water, protection, space besides helipads,” informed Pant. He said after construction of more helipads in Uttarakhand, many leading companies would be eager to run helicopter services here. Some of these include Jackson Air, Pawan Hans, Prabhatam (already running in Kedarnath), Kingfisher and Go-Air. “The serene natural environs of the state are another attraction for helicopter service providers,” Pant added.
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Coaching centres take students for a ride
Roorkee, September 10 Roorkee has witnessed the mushrooming of hundreds of coaching centres, which claim sure-shot success in engineering and medical entrance exams. But in reality, most of these coaching centres are exploiting students as well their unsuspecting parents. And to top it all, they charge exorbitant fees - anywhere between Rs 25,000 to 1.50 lakh, depending on the goodwill and reputation of the centre. To attract students, some centres also assure ‘guaranteed’ success in competitive exams. Ironically, success rate of most of these is almost nil. Publishing photographs of successful candidates - who are not even students of these centres - in their advertisements, is another gimmick employed to attract students. “I paid Rs 80,000 for my daughter’s coaching to a reputed centre, which assured me of her guaranteed success. However, she could not make it through any exam,” said local businessman Ram Bhaj. “These coaching centres just exploit students and their parents by promising a great future at the IIT,” said Shashank Verma, a student. The exploitation has reached such alarming proportions that the National Students Union of India has decided to launch an agitation against these coaching centres in case the authorities concerned failed to initiate appropriate action. “We will start a protest against this menace very soon,” said the NSUI district president Amit Rod.
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Dishing out pictures crystal clear
Dehradun, September 10 Tata Sky, Zee Dish TV, Sun TV, Reliance Big TV and Airtel TV are some of the popular digital televisions which are being preferred by most of the households for being customer friendly, flexible package selection and DVD quality picture as well as sound quality. Various shops are selling set top boxes and also providing voucher facilities for recharging it in the city. “Though the digital set top boxes are in the market since more then one year, from the past six months the demand for it has tremendously gone up, reasons being picture quality, customer care facility, channels as per one’s choice and facility of keeping it pre-paid or paying it annually as per convenience sake,” said HS Kohli, owner of Kohli Music Centre. From time to time, digital television companies keep on taking out schemes and features which can be altered as per choice and once the installation of the set top box is done it can be transferred and in need of more channels, top ups are also available. Initial installation of the set top box costs approximately between Rs 1,500 Rs 2,000. However, as pre-paid facility is convenient people in the city are opting it more as compared to annual packages. They also informed the customers on their registered mobile numbers about the due date of the payment. “The facilities under digital television plans are customer friendly and with people becoming quality conscious it has naturally affected the business of cable operators,” added Kohli. “Since the past one year, I am using Tata Sky digital television due to its clarity and facility of having my favourite channels. “However, when I had cable it was a nuisance during bad weather or no electricity,” said Shrishti, customer. “Though in the remote areas, people are still having cable facility. Due to coming up of digital television we are facing a loss of at least 15 per cent to 20 per cent,”
said Gaurav Negi, owner of Negi Cable Network.
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Pitthoragarh, September 10