Dehradun, November 25
If you think 5,204 post offices and its five lakh employees in the state are fading away in obscurity, for largely being taken over by mobile phone and Internet onslaught, then think twice.

The postal services have put its act together and are now making optimum use of its inimitable resources by giving various kinds of services to private sector. On the one hand, where private sector gets to benefit from the wider reach of the Postal Department, on the other postal services too get to earn revenue and make good use of its resources, which otherwise would become redundant.

Admitting that postal services have remained far from the media glare, due to which people are ignored about the new avatar of post offices, Faiz-ur-Rehman, Chief Postmaster General, Uttarakhand Circle, India Post, said, “Mailing has drastically reduced over the years. In such a scenario, it was a challenge for us to make good use of our resources and survive in this fast-developing scenario”.

He goes on to say that 7,000 post offices across the state have been selling products of Divya Yog Pharmacy, Haridwar-based pharmaceutical company, in their premises. This fetched them a revenue of Rs 3 crore.

He is in the final stage of tying up with big brands, Proctor & Gamble and Hindustan Lever, to provide them logistic services throughout the state. “We will provide them our transport to carry their goods in the state. We, being stationed in far-off rural areas, hilly regions and tough terrains and equipped with our transport system, will be able to provide them maximum benefit,” he quipped.

The state postal services have also collaborated with international agencies. He said: “We have joined hands with Emirates Post, Western Union in America and Eurogiro in Geneva to provide them inward remittance services. This way, people living in these countries can send money to anybody in India through us,” he said. Not only this, postal services is closely linked with more than a 100 countries through the Universal Postal Union, international agency, for providing speed post and parcel services to these countries.

A new chapter has also opened up for postal services after it has been linked with ambitious project of the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).

Rehman said, “We have been providing financial services through our banks for a long time. But now after getting associated with NREGA, our participation in the field of financial inclusion has increased many times, as scores of workers working under this scheme will get their wages from the bank accounts opened in post offices, and will be able to benefit from our saving and other banking schemes”.

Postal services have been providing railway reservation to people living in remote areas of the region and passport services to make life easy for the common man.

Besides this, he informed that these post offices had been providing other services for bigwigs like BSNL and Reliance by giving BSNL recharge services and the sale and purchase for Reliance gold coins.

The current feather in the hat of the state postal services is its private partnership with the ICICI Prudential Life Insurance where it will facilitate wide penetration to the company through its 2,716 post offices in Uttarakhand. He said: “It also benefit us as our staff, who otherwise do not have much work left in mailing, gets engaged in constructive activities. They are trained in these tasks”.

He does not find it difficult to adapt to newer challenges which otherwise have not much to do with the basic functioning of postal services. He simple puts it saying, “It is as easy as disposing a postal stamp”.

Indeed, the state postal services, 150 years old, have emerged as a phoenix by making optimum use of its resources, be it its space, manpower, transport, banking system, building and not hesitating in learning new skills to match up with fast-paced development like speed post. It’s dream of becoming self-sustainable by 2012 does not seem far-fetched.

Dehradun November 25
The orders given by the High Court to vacate the building of District Labour Office at Niranjanpur has left the employees in a quandary as the furniture and files are lying outside their new office at Dharampur in the open. The peripheral problem of infrastructure and proper work has created chaos in their work whereas government seems to pay no heed to their sufferings.

Equally, those coming to the department, including industrial labourers coming from near and far-flung areas are unable to get their work done due to the chaos in the office.

All the files and folders, racks and cupboards are lying in the open due to shortage of space in the new office. “We don’t even have the place to sit and work while furniture and other things have also been dumped here,” said Rajender, president of the employees’ union.

“Actually, High Court was supposed to order vacating half of the building, located at Niranjanpur. But now the entire District Labour Office has been shifted to accommodate the Labour Court and the new rented accommodation is less to accommodate all the paraphernalia,” he added.

Interestingly, the District Labour Officer D Lal was booked for accepting bribe by the vigilance department sometime ago. The absence of any senior officers has compounded the problems of the employees as well as those coming to the office for their work done.

“We are looking forward for some assistance from the Labour Commissioner as he is likely to pay a visit on November 28 at our Dharampur office to resolve our predicament,’ said an employee.

Dehradun, November 25
Perturbed over government’s negligent attitude in providing steady employment opportunities, Basic Training Course teachers from Dehradun and Haridwar districts took out a rally from Gandhi Park to the Secretariat.The agitators presented a memorandum to the Secretary, School Education. 

The main reasons for their resentment were that in spite of ongoing training by the Education Department, there are no vacancies in schools and they are jobless since 2006. The agitators raised slogans, saying that their regular visits to the Education Department and Education Directorate regarding their genuine problem went in vain.

“From 2006, we have been jobless and are protesting today as we are at the receiving end of government’s casual attitude. However, we have listed our demands to the Secretary and are expecting that soon they will address our issues,” said SP Bahuguna, one of the teachers.

A match in progress at the Junior Council Boys Basketball Tournament in Dehradun on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Dehradun, November 25
The Indian Cambridge School (ITCS)-A team and Hilton School won their respective matches at the ongoing Junior Council Boys Basketball Tournament underway at The Indian Cambridge School here today.

ITCS-A team won its match against MI team in a cliffhanger. The last minute point scored by Saksham helped his team register a win.

Both the teams were equally matched throughout the match with MI team taking a lead of three points in the first quarter. MI team further increased its lead by two points in the second quarter.

But in the last two quarters ITCS-A team made a comeback, the team scored 6 points in the third quarter against MI who could managed to score only 
four points. While, in the last quarter ITCS-A scored seven points against MI, which scored three points. For TICS, Saksham was the highest points scorer with eight points and for MI team Shubham scored 12 points.

Meanwhile, in the second match, Hilton School team registered a 32-6 points win over TICS-B team in the finals.

Hilton School spikers scored 12 points in the first quarter against TICS team which managed to score four points. In the second and third quarter TICS team failed a score a single point against Hilton School, which scored 20 points. Final scores at the end of the match were 32-6 in favour of Hilton School. 

Dehradun, November 25
Raipur Youngster team registered a 131-run victory over Unison Law College at the ongoing Shyam Dutt Joshi Memorial Cricket Tournament here today.

Boby was the star performer for Raipur Youngster with 73 runs.

Batting first Raipur Youngster scored 198 runs in allotted 20 overs. The team openers began on a fine note to contribute 28 runs for the first wicket partnership. Opener Sandy scored 19 runs, whereas another opener Shristy scored 12 runs.

Thereafter it was Boby for the team who accelerated the run rate for his team and went on to play a fiery knock of 73 runs in just 28 balls, smashing nine fours and one six in the match.

Raju supported him well on the other end to go on to score 38 runs, whereas Yogamar scoring 22 runs. For Union Law College Rahul picked two wickets whereas Vishal took one wicket.

Chasing the victory target of 198 runs Unison Law College team was all out at the loss of 68 runs. Middle order batsman was the highest scorer for the team with 14 runs, whereas Smith and Omar made 10 runs each.

For Raipur Youngster team Prakash ripped through the batting line up of Unison Law College team to claim four wickets, whereas Ayush took three wicket. 

Dehradun, November 25
Aditi won gold in 100m and 400m sprints at the Women Open Athletics Competition organised by District Sports Office, Dehradun, today.

Other results:

100m: 1 Aditi (KV ONGC), 2 Lupita (KV ONGC) and 3 Asha (KV ONGC).

200m: 1 Lupita (KV ONGC), 2 Aditi (KV ONGC) and 3 Shivani (Guru Ram Rai, Nehru Gram).

400m: 1 Aditi (KV ONGC), 2 Shivani (KV ONGC) and 3 Aashta (ONGC).

800m: 1 Aastha (KV ONGC) and 2 Sonika (Rajkiya Girls Inter College, Rajpur Road).

1500m: 1 Aastha (KV ONGC), 2 Raveena (Guru Ram Rai) and 3 Ria (Guru Ram Rai).

Shot-put: 1 Aastha (Balawala), 2 Raveena Uniyal (Nehru Gram) and 3 Mamta (Balawala).

Javelin Throw: 1 Purnima (Guru Ram Rai, Balawala), 2 Shiksha (Guru Ram Rai) and 3 Kanchan (Guru Ram Rai).

Discus throw: 1 Purnima (Guru Ram Rai, Balawala), 2 S Nagmani (KV ONGC) and 3 Asha Negi (Gururam Rai, Balawala).

Long jump: 1. Lupita (KV, ONGC) and 2 Tanvi (Rajkiya Inter College) 

Haridwar November 25
The students of the Haridwar Sports Tae-kwon-do Club won several medals in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand Open Taekwondo Championsip and also bagged first position in several categories. Team’s coach Gagan Bhandari too bagged the coveted Best Coach award in the championship.

In the sub-junior category Dev Raj, Karrav, Archit won gold medals with Om Pal winning silver and Mritunjay Sharma bagging bronze. While in the girls’ section Manorama Sharma, Seema Bishnoi, Shailja Sharma, Dhara Sharma, Ishika Chauhan and Niyati Kumari won gold medals.

In the juniors Sashank Sharma, Nitesh Kumar won gold medals followed by Gaurav Sharma, Vibhor Aggarwal, Himanshu Chanchal winning silver and Prashant Sharma clinched bronze medal.

While in the senior section, Anand Kumar, Ankit and Indrajit Taneja bagged first three positions.

The club felicitated the winners. The emerged winners expressed happiness over their performance and attributed it to the intense training and hard work done on them by the Taekwondo club staff.

Dehradun, November 25
KV ONGC won nine gold to occupy first place at the Kendriya Vidyalay Sangathan Dehradun Zone Cluster Games organised at KV OFD here today. KV ONGC secured 225 points, KV IIP was placed second with 165 runs and KV OLF secured 120 points to be placed at third spot. Vijay Negi of KV OFD won gold at 100m sprint, Prateek Thapa of KV OLF secured silver and Shubham Chauhan of KV OLF had to satisfy with bronze medal. On the occasion KV OFD girls also gave cultural performances.

Other results:

In Class IV 100m Boys: 1. Vishal Singh (KV IIP) 2. Gaurav Yadav (KV OLF) 3. Yash Sharma (KV OLF).

In Class V 100m Boys: 1. Manish Rawat (KV OFD) 2. Sanjay Yadav (KV OLF) 3. Vishwas (KV OLF).

In Class IV 100m Girls: 1. Shivani (KV IIP) 2. A. Gusain (KV IIP) 3. Shivani (KV IIP).

In Class V 100m Girls: Pratibha (KV OFD) 2. Sonali (KV OFD) 3. Minashi Bisht (KV OLF). 

Dehradun, November 25
"We Can", a movement to end violence against women today launched a mobile van that would visit different blocks of the state building awareness about Domestic Violence Act and urging people to bring changes in their attitude.Addressing a press conference Meera Kantura, State Coordinator said that a ‘nukad natak’ team will travel by the van, stage plays to build awareness at selected blocks.

“Besides a team of change makers is being formed, who are first motivated to become part of the movement that is against any form of violence, and after that these teams will spread the message among others. They are first encouraged to bring changes in their lives. The movement believes that change in others cannot be forced,” she said.

The van would visit the selected blocks in four days, at least three blocks of 13 districts have been selected for the purpose of dissemination of the message.

The change process at the level of the change makers is supported by the work of the alliance members, communication materials, etc.

“We Can” is a movement underway in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The van was flagged off by Raj Rawat, Chairman (former) State Women’s Commission, who said that cases in the hills are underreported.

Kotdwar (Pauri Garhwal), November 25
Kotdwar town will be developed as the gateway to Corbett National Park and an eco-tourism circuit will be developed for tourists coming in the season.

This was announced by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhrial Nishank during a visit to the town on Tuesday.

During his first visit to Kotdwar as Chief Minister, from where he learnt initial lessons of politics and worked as a journalist, Nishank confessed that Kotdwar, an important town of Garhwal region, has been neglected after the formation of Uttarakhand.

He assured the local people that he was sentimentally attached to Kotdwar hence would give priority to the development of the region.

He addressed a huge public meeting last evening. He said that Kanva-ashram, the ashram of sage Kanva where King Bharat was born, would be brought on the tourism map.

“The people of India must know that the King, after whom the country had been named, was born at Kotdwar,” he said.

He added that a plan of Rs 50 crore has been devised to develop the region as an eco and culture tourist destination.

Regarding the old demand of locals regarding the opening of another gate of Corbett National Park for tourists from Garhwal, he said that the government was developing a plan with the Asian Development Bank to integrate Rajaji National Park and Corbett reserve to encourage eco-tourism and Kotdwar would be the gateway for this circuit.

The villages near the buffer zone of Corbett Park, Sona Nadi Wildlife Sanctuary, would be developed as a tourist village, he added.

Mentioning the nearby Charekh-ka-Damda, the place believed to be the ashram of Rishi Charak, who founded ayurveda, Nishank said that a herbal research centre would be opened there and that Swami Ramdev has shown interest in the project.

Dehradun, November 25
On the concluding day of the World Heritage Week today at the Archaeology Survey of India (Science Branch), Prof BP Kamboj, former head of the Fine Arts Department, Kanpur University, said that our heritage could only be saved through the collective effort of people who value these.

“Several cultural sites, heritage buildings and artifacts got destroyed as there was no effort on the part of society to protect them. The state of our culture and art down the ages is reflected in ancient sites and monuments that are unfortunately being ignored,” said Kamboj, who was the chief guest.

The thrust of the week was on making children and adults aware of the country’s rich cultural heritage.

Dr KS Rana, Director, Science Branch, said that it was up to the younger generation to take a lead. “We need cooperation of the people as the main thrust of the week was on ‘jan jagran’ (mobilising the people),” he said.

On the occasion, a souvenir tracing the archaeological and historical importance of the Central Himalayas from the prehistoric period onwards and having special appeal to lay persons was released.

It was jointly released by Dr DN Dimri, Superintendent Archaeology (Dehradun Circle), Dr KS Rana, Director of ASI (Science Branch), Dr Mrithunjaya Mishra, Registrar, Uttarakhand Technical University and Prof BP Kamboj, former head of Fine Arts Department, Kanpur University. The Dehradun Circle has prepared the souvenir.

Speaking about the souvenir, Dr Dimri said that the Central Himalayas were rich repositories of civilisations that took shape here and for the first time, all important evidence has been brought out in a booklet form.