Dehradun, October 25
While earthquake predictions still continue to be a far cry, new innovations like real-time data leading to effective alert system can help minimise death and destruction during earthquakes.

Quake-prone countries like Japan have effectively used alert systems to counter frequent tremors, while alert systems in India are still in the evolving phase. From analog to digital and now real-time data, earthquake study has certainly gone ahead in past few decades.

When earthquake predictions are a non-starter, an alert system could certainly be effective, barring distance hindrances.

While ripples at Uttarkashi region of Uttarakhand could be alerted in Delhi but these won’t be not feasible for Dehradun that is closer to Uttarakashi than the national capital.

“It would take 40 seconds for Delhi to know about the occurrence of a quake in Uttarakashi, but for Dehradun, it needs to be done within 10 seconds due to the proximity of Dehradun to Uttarkashi,” said Dr RK Chadda, National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad.

Humans have found themselves helpless in the event of an earthquake and even alert systems are in a transitional phase. Dr BN Arora, Director, Wadia Institute, said while predicting earthquakes was not possible, strengthening of earthquake precursory signals would certainly be helpful.

He said that in the past five to six years, the quality of digital and real-time data 
has improved.

He also felt the need to conduct multidisciplinary experiments in the Western Himalayas on the lines of one done in Tibet for better understanding of colliding structures.

He said any place between Kotdwar and Joshimath, which are in the high-seismic zone, would be ideally suited for the experiment.

“Our understanding of earthquake dynamics has increased and the interpretation quality too has improved,” said Dr Arora adding that knowledge of earthquake processes would get richer and richer with the passage of time.

Prediction, a sure-sort remedy to check loss of lives and property due to tremors was not possible as of now.

Dr S Sinha of the Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur, said that predicting quake stood as a formidable challenge but admitted that identifying quake sensitive areas on the basis of past statistics can certainly be done.

Earthquakes are a regular feature in the Himalayas, the youngest, tallest and seismically most fragile mountain range in the world. Most of these tremors are minor measuring less than 4 on the Richter scale and occur mostly in far-flung areas.

But these tremors point towards the danger of a larger earthquake. The Uttarkashi earthquake in 1991 and Chamoli in 1999 did cause destruction to life and property in Uttarakhand.

In most hill states, there is no disaster management plan keeping in view the peculiar geographic and topographical conditions prevailing.

This is despite the fact that most Himalayan states - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand or North-Eastern states fall in the highly seismic zone and many earthquakes of big and medium magnitude have already hit these areas in the past century.

However, on the brighter side, former director, Wadia, Dr VC Thakur, strongly believes that Wadia was fast turning into a major centre of earthquake studies and foresaw better inter-disciplinary studies at the institute.

Dehradun, October 25
Uttarakhand has become the first state to include blood donation awareness programme in school curriculum. The State Voluntary Blood Donation Committee has roped in both private and government schools in the first phase of the programme and a total of 50 schools have been brought in.

The programme will be started from November. In the second phase of the programme, more schools will be added.

“We plan to strengthen the blood donation movement and see children as future blood donors. The children are asked to take oath that they will voluntarily donate blood once they gain the right age for donation,” said Vinita Srivastav, consultant of the committee and State AIDS Control Society.

The committee recently organised a blood donation awareness camp at KV, ITBP.

To attract more and more volunteers, complete health check-up of students is undertaken. “If regular donations are undertaken, one can be sure of getting a health card. In fact, women suffering from anaemia are given iron tablets and other vitamins so that they return for donations once their blood count is restored,” said Vinita.

To encourage voluntary blood donations, the donor and his family is also eligible for health check-ups at the hospitals. Despite making these provisions, the blood donations continue to be a tough task requiring a lot of homework on part of the motivators.

Dehradun, October 25
Professor Yash Pal, chairman of the high-level Committee on Education Reform, today called for a holistic approach to higher education making it inter-disciplinary so that different streams of science and humanities could coalesce without obstruction.

“What we are following are divisive policies and ridiculous constraints, the Nobel-winning performance by Prof Ramakrishnan Venkatraman was possible as he could effortlessly shift to chemistry and molecular biology, though he had studied physics initially during the course of his studies in America and England,” stressed Professor Pal.

He expressed these views during the course of a lecture delivered today at Doon University, in which students, citizens and former professors were present.

Stating further he said instead of the Medical Council of India deciding on the course of medical syllabus in the country, a new Council of Health Sciences should be created that took a broader view of all disciplines and became catalyst to fire imagination of students.

He said the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) had become undergraduate factories, but they could not take the shape of institutions like the ones in America, also known for research work in the field of humanities and economics, besides technology and engineering.

“We have unwittingly created an expert system that disallows room for creative and out-of-the-box thinking. There is no room for interaction between different fields. Educational communication is a touchstone to discover new things. It is mainly done to preserve individual autonomy. We should give freedom of movement to learners without boundaries in the sphere of knowledge. Creativity cannot blossom by itself, it has to interact,” pointed out the Professor.

Calling for complete independence of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Professor Pal stressed that it should be made independent comprising academic experts on the pattern of the Election Commission.

Earlier, while welcoming Professor Pal, Vice-Chancellor of Doon University Prof Girijesh Pant said integrated education policy should promote autonomy for universities and provide enough resources for the state universities for their smooth functioning.

Dehradun, October 25
While on one hand, high-end designers boutiques, salons and luxury flats are coming up in the city day by day, a dilapidated Manda House passage, popularly known as motor market situated in the middle of posh Rajpur Road market, remains one of the dirtiest lanes.

This reflects the nonchalant attitude of the administration. Despite regular complaints, residents have been awaiting some improvement for a long while. Winter is already here while the Municipal Corporation had promised to set it right after monsoon.

Established several years ago, it is primarily a business centre for motor mechanics and offers satisfactory service to residents of Doon.

The fact that former Prime Minister VP Singh was once the owner of the area has somewhat complicated matters. Presently, the land is under the supervision of the Municipal Corporation, who time and again have failed to act assertively.

“This portion of land belonged to the late VP Singh, but now it is government property. However, the matter is pending as one of his followers claims it as his private property. Five years earlier, some work was started here, but to no avail as nobody cares for this area,” said Sardul Singh, owner of Bamra Spares.

With heaps of garbage at the entrance of the lane and traffic chaos, residents, particularly women, find it impossible to walk as there are chances of getting hurt in the mud and debris.

To make the situation worse, water and electricity problems have doubled the worries of residents. “I have been running my tailoring shop here since 1974. There has been no improvement but we are stuck as we can’t afford to relocate to posh areas,” said Naseer Ahmed, owner, Avishkaar Tailors.

Area councillor Shail Tandon said, “I have no idea about this land belonging to VP Singh as it is now under the authority of the MC. We were to start work after the monsoon, but somehow it got delayed due to festivals and shortage of construction material. The issue have been resolved with the Corporation and we are hopeful that within a month or two, work will start.”

Dehradun, October 25
With a gaiety and fervour, Marshall School celebrated its 42nd Annual Sports Day here today. The function was held at GC Juyal Sports Stadium.

The programme began with a march past by athletes. It was followed by welcome PT by KG students, yoga presentation by classes V and VI students and ring PT by classes III and IV students.

The chief guest for the day was former Chief Minister Major-Gen BC Khanduri (retd).

The best athlete award in girls’ category was won by Pritika Bisht of the senior school, whereas in boys’ category, it was bagged by Abhishek Uniyal.

In the girls’ junior section, it was Riya Chand and in boy’s junior section it was Mayank Thapa who grabbed the first position.

However, the overall championship trophy was bagged by Green House, and Blue House stood second at the sports day of the school.

Dehradun, October 25
The Shivalik Club defeated Doon Star Club by a solitary goal scored in the dying minutes of the match in the 9th Gautam Gurung Memorial Football tournament being played at the Pavillion Grounds, here today.

Doon Star, a local club that has reached the super league stage of the Dehradun Football League started as a favourite in the match but the Shivalik Club boys gave their best to give a tough fight.

The match was heading towards a draw when Sushil Rawat picked up a pass from the left wing brilliantly to score a goal in the 58th minutes of the match sealing the fate of Doon Star Club.

In the second match of the day, Sports Hostel defeated Junior Cantt boys by four goals. Sports Hostel boys completely dominated the match and scored at regular intervals. Pankaj opened the score with a gaol in the 10th minutes of the game followed by Shishir in 24th minute and Dewan in the 51st minute.

Pankaj finshed with his second goal by scoring in the 60th minute. Sports Hostel won by 4-0. On Monday, Garhwal Boys will take on Doon Valley Club while in the second match Vijay Cantt, one of the oldest clubs of Dehradun would take on another old team- Garhwal Sporting.