Haridwar, October 12
Perturbed over not getting three months’ salary, health workers, under the aegis of the Uttaranchal Rajya Anganwadi Karmachari Panchayat (URAKP), protested at Roshanabad district headquarters here today.

The anganwadi workers demanded a monthly payment with arrears and cited that despite repeated reminders nothing had been done in this regard which made them take up the agitation route.

The workers blamed the state government for neglecting their needs. Anita Saini, divisional chief of the URAKP, said if their demands were not met instantly before Diwali, they would have to resort to a more fierce agitation.

“Diwali is just around the corner and yet we are not paid our salaries and arrears, forget any bonus. We are being exploited and get second-hand treatment for our hard work,” said Saini.

Construction of separate anganbadi houses, alienation of Mata Samitis, instant payment of cooked food scheme funds, transfer of those workers who have worked at one place for minimum five years were some of the other demands of the workers.

Agitating workers also tried to bring to the fore their exploitation citing they were being burdened with other departmental works while Anganwadi Centres were being opened at places where population was less than 500.

Dehradun, October 12
Those travelling by air between Dehradun and Delhi may look forward to lesser incidence of cancellation or diversion of flights due to weather conditions as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is set to install the much-needed Instrument Landing System (ILS) for the purpose at the state’s largest Jolly Grant Airport near here.

Coupled with the already reduced regulatory visibility requirement to 1.5 km, the ILS will ensure that the impact of adverse weather conditions on flight operations is minimised to a great extent. Its installation in terms of capacity upgradation of the airport will vertically improve the air-connectivity of the hill state, which has been suffering on this count so far.

Principal Secretary, Civil Aviation, Uttarakhand, PC Sharma said the ILS equipment had already reached at the airport. It was being put through necessary checks before installation. The sheds where it would be installed had already been constructed. “I can’t say when the process of installation will begin, but it will be done as soon as no other technicality is required for the purpose,” he said.

Till now, Visual Flight Rules (VFR) guided landing and taking off from here. The situation improved further with notification of reducing the visibility norm to 1.5 km. So, it is expected that there will be no more suspension, delay or diversion of scheduled, or non-scheduled charter flights to and from the airport.

“We expect the development to facilitate substantial increase in the air-traffic as major airlines operators were demanding this persistently for long. The improved air-connectivity thereof is set to give a major push to the tourist flow in the larger and long-term benefit to the state’s economy,” added Sharma.

As of now, Kingfisher operates two flights daily between Delhi and Dehradun from here. Another daily flight is to be started soon from Pantnagar airport. The non-scheduled chartered flights carrying VIPs and tourists constitute a major chunk of the air traffic. Since the visibility factor quite often turned out to be the major hindrance, people had not option but to drive down from Delhi. But Sharma asserted that this would become a thing of past.

Dehradun, October 12
In the fourth year of its existence, the Uttarakhand Information Commission is adding another facility for complaint redressal through SMS. Making things simpler, any inquiries regarding complaints will also be available on the mobile phone.

Making this announcement on the concluding day of the Right to Information (RTI) Week today, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Dr RS Tolia said Andhra Pradesh was the only state in the country that was taking up complaints through SMS and Uttarakhand would be following it shortly. “To further enhance the penetration of the commission, we will introduce OB vans soon which will provide access to hill people. RTI experts will advise people on the legal aspect of the right. We need to increase legal awareness among villagers to give more teeth to the Act,” said Dr Tolia.

While Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pandey said any subversion in the act would be severely dealt. “The Right to Information Act’s long-term impact is good governance and also to act as a deterrence against pilferage of government money,” said Pandey, adding that the Act has paved way for attitude change even among members of the bureaucracy.

The women members of the federation in six districts said they were cross-questioned umpteen times as to why they desired information about a particular department.

Dehradun, October 12
The Forest Research Institute (FRI) today held Vaniki mela at Shahtabdhi Van Vigyan Kendra, Rangers College.

Inaugurating the fair, Director, FRI, Dr SS Negi said the aim of the mela was to sensitise the general public about the importance of forestry in the generation of livelihood.

He said the fair provided an opportunity to farmers to know of the latest farming techniques.

He visited each and every stall and had a look at the products. One of the participants, Sushma from the Mamata Naree Uthan Samiti said the bamboo products created by them were receiving a big response. She said the mela provided them excellent platform to showcase their products.

Voluntary organisations like Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve, Chamoli Garhwal, Navdanya, Dehradun, Mahila Vikas Samiti, Dehradun, Uttarakhand Bamboo Fibre and Development Board and farmers from Malhan, Ratanpur, Ganeshpur took an active part in the mela.

There were also rush at the stalls selling bamboo and fibre products. Senior FRI officials Dr VRR Singh, Amit Ashtana and other students of FRI University attended the fair.

Dehradun, October 12
A five-day Dolphin Microbial Technology workshop organised by the Dolphin Institute and the Forest Research Institute (FRI) concluded here today on the FRI premises.

Various well-known scientists of the nation discussed and delivered lectures on important subjects, including forest, environment, food and beverages, chemical and fertiliser-based, pharma and human health-based microbiologies.

On the occasion, an informative lecture on H1N1 was also delivered by Dr Rishendra Verma, hief scientist, IVRI.

Chief guest FRI Director Dr SS Negi appreciated the efforts of the institute for providing such a platform, where scientists and intellectuals from academic institutions and students could discuss and interact with one another in different subjects. He insisted that all participants to indulge in more and more studies. He added that research study proceedings being done by senior scientists would definitely provide right direction to the participants. Meanwhile, participants showed keen interest in quiz and poster competitions.

Deepali, Hitosh, and Himanshu Singh of Chinmaya Degree College jointly won the first prize in quiz competition. Divya Mehta and Asifa Mustaq of the Dolphin Institute got runners-up position.

While in the poster competition, Swati Allen of MIET and Vivek Ramaul stood first and second, respectively. The consolation prize was given to Rajni Pandy of the Dolphin Institute in poster presentation.

Dehradun, October 12
If someone is interested in knowing about how our Meteorological Department works in finding out the climate changes, then the Uttaranchal Trade Mahotsav is the place to know all about the department’s workings.

At the Mahotsav where over 150 stalls have been put up, one can come across a stall of meteorological department being set under the Ministry of Earth Sciences banner, giving vivid details about how the department functions.

The purpose of the stall is to generate awareness also to satisfy queries of public over climate change, global warming and tsunami. Director of the department Anand Sharma said various instruments were used in collecting the data, for finding out the reasons behind climate changes, tsunami and cyclones.

Through these instruments one could also highlight the areas, which could experience acidic rain.

The first instrument displayed at the stall is anemometer, which is used for calculating wind speed.

The second instrument was the wind vane, third instrument was the rain gaugeand the fourth instrument was stevenson screen for calculating the humidity. 

Dehradun, October 12
Surya Prakash Rajkoshi retained post of the president of the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) for the third consecutive year here today in the elections held on the MDDA premises.

He voted out Ravinder Rawat, who got only 32 votes. Also, Devraj Chamoli won the post of the general secretary for the third consecutive year.

He got 83 votes and defeated Ajay Malik, who got only 66 votes.

Meanwhile, former Transport Minister and senior trade union leader Hira Singh Bisht was elected national secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) at its’ national convention held at Kochi in Kerela. 

Haridwar, October 12
At the Women’s Inter-College Basketball final, which was played at the BHEL sports complex, Sector-1, Doon eves of DAV PG College defeated MPG College Mussoorie girls easily by a huge margin of 58-12.

DAV PG College, Dehradun, and MPG College, Mussoorie, met for the second time in the championship with Doon winning replicating their league win again in the finals. In the league match, DAV PG had won comprehensively 45-06.

In both halfs DAV PG girls showcased a good game. Suman Kumari was the top scorer with 28 points in the finals alone. While Usha scored 10 and other players too chipped in with useful contribution.

According to Kumari Suman in basketball the substitute players can also play an active role unlike in football or cricket.

“We rotated the players so that no one is tired and that strategy worked in our favour,” said Usha.

At the presentation ceremony GM BHEL HR Vimal Kumar said it’s a matter of giving opportunity to the girls and they are no less in comparison to boys in any field.

Present at the final match were Ram Moorti Veer, Mahant Bilkeshwar Giri, Mahant Triyambakar Bharti, SK Batra and other SMJN College staff members while match officials were Amit Kumar, Sanjay Verma, Nishant Kumar, Vaibhav Aggarwal 
and Devrishi.

Nainital, Doon in semis

Nainital, Almora, Dehradun and Haridwar have made it to the semifinals of he State-Level Women Basketball Tournament organised by District Sports Office.

Nainital defeated Pithoragarh by 24-2. Nainital team dominated the proceeding throughout and scored baskets with ease on the other hand Pithoragarh team looked out of place throughout the match. Sakshi was the highest scorer for Nainital with seven points.

In the second match, Almora team outplayed Uttarkashi by 17-4. The third match Haridwar emerged winning in the match by 20-3. The fourth match was won by Dehradun by 43-9. 

Dehradun, October 12
Carman School to meet The Asian School in the final of the Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys Super Eight’s Cricket Tournament, 2009, here tomorrow.

In the first match of the day, Summer Valley School piled 19 runs at the loss of seven wickets in the first innings, whereas Carman School scored 21 runs in the first innings at the loss of five wickets.

Thus, Carman School took a lead of two runs. In the second innings, Summer Valley scored 28 runs at the loss of three wickets. Carman School easily achieved the target to with six wickets in hand.

The second match was played between GRD and The Asian School. The Asian School won the match by five runs.

Batting first, The Asian School scored 41 runs at the loss of one wicket.

GRD School scored 26 runs at the loss of two wickets, thus taking a crucial lead of 15 runs.

In the second innings of the match, The Asian School Scored 31 runs at the loss of five wickets and GRD School failed to achieve the target and lost the match by a margin. 

Dehradun, October 12
Swati Sharma and Bhawana Harbola will clash for the titles at the State Women Table Tennis Championship being organised at Summer Valley School.

In the first semifinal match, Swati Sharma defeated Priyanka Madwal in straight sets.

Swati won the first set by 11-3 and the second by 11-2 to leave Priyanka completely demoralised in the match. Swati won the final set by 11-8.

In the second semifinal, Bhawana Harbola outshine Vinita Bhatt by 11-6, 13-11 and 12-10.