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State faces power crisis
MC mulls shelter for stray dogs
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Leopard skins seized, poacher arrested
ITBP fights bear attacks
Relief for victims of leopard attacks sought
Experts discuss petro separation technologies with less pollution
Short-term course for managers of higher education institutes at IIT-R
Centre for biotechnology research set up
Sharad’s fiver scripts Rao Academy’s win
Many junior cagers, but few at senior level
Little Master Club clinch cricket title
U’khand Cricket Academy emerge winners
MDDA protest called off
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State faces power crisis
Dehradun, January 7 The Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) too snapped the 220 KV Bareli-Pant power lines when the state continued to draw despite low frequency. The crisis pushed whole Kumaon Mandal in the dark for a long time. But this dreadful situation can repeat itself time and again, especially when it is foggy and
cold outside. It is during that time when people use heating gadgets the most and frequency touches to low which makes power drawing difficult from the northern grid. And again because of fog power lines develop fault and power crisis
deepens further. The UPCL recently joined hands with private lender Mittal Processors to give it 14 lakh unit every day. But despite drawing power from its own sources, the northern grid, banking from West
Bengal and purchasing it from Adani Powers, is still falling short of 20.3 lakh units. It was found that Punjab, as was claimed, is not
lending its power to the state for January. It will start from February and March. As now the dam is closed, the situation is becoming alarming. According to sources, it is totally the discretion of the UP Irrigation Department when they open the dam. As per the agreement between both states, UP uses the dam only for irrigation purpose, which has limited water supply for 30 days. The water from the dam is used only when UP passes through water crisis, which is not prevailing now because of good shower in recent days. Since UP has no vested interest of sharing power with Uttarakhand from the electricity
generation of this dam, it does not hesitate to close it as per its own requirement. So, the officials have raised their hands and say that they are doing their best to manage the crisis, but there is no respite from long power cuts in recent times. People must be prepared to arrange for some traditional methods to keep their homes warm and gadgets run by battery to get light at home as inverters will not be able to do much in longer spell of power cuts.
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MC mulls shelter for stray dogs
Dehradun, January 7 Packs of street dogs can be found in colonies and at prominent landmarks like the Ashley Hall, Rajpur Road, Saharanpur Chowk, Jhakan, Survey Chowk either rummaging food inside garbage bins or busy running from one corner to another thereby disrupting traffic. Incidents of dog bites in and around the city have also increased manifold in the past nine years. “In the past nine years, I have observed that the number of stray dogs has increased in the city causing innumerable problems to residents. This is a serious issue and needs to be dealt sternly by the concerned authorities,” felt Lata Sharma, a resident. Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli said, “Under the new memorandum of understanding between the MC and PFA, the pending cases will be looked into very soon to speed up the sterilisation process of stray dogs. “However, the PFA is an NGO and it is not entirely our responsibility to look into all matters. After all, it takes finances and manpower to smoothly carry on the sterilisation drive. “Understanding the gravity of the situation, we are planning to construct a shelter under the aegis of the MC,” Chamoli said. Gauri Maulekhi, a prominent member of the People for Animals (PFA), Dehradun chapter, said, “In the past one-and-a-half years, we have successfully conducted almost 1,000 operations under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme. The idea behind sterilisation is that after once the dog is sterilised and sent back to its territory, birth control will automatically take place. After the removal of the reproductive organ, it has been noticed that dogs turn docile and become lazy.” About the support of the Municipal Corporation and how involved and sensitive the masses are towards the need of the canines, she added, “Presently at the shelter of the PFA, there is space for 150 dogs. After the operations, we undertake a post-care regime and hence it is difficult for us to house a large number of dogs at a given time. “The MC is supporting us, but we want them to act more seriously and supply us with more dogs for operation and finances. We have also started construction of a shelter. “We believe that with media exposure, the mindset of people towards these innocent animals will change.”
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Leopard skins seized, poacher arrested
Dehradun, January 7 The STF police team members who carried the raid included Sub Inspector DS Rawat, Head Constable Jagdish Dutta, Constable Deepak Bhandari, Constable Asaf Khan and Constable driver Bishnuswaroop Tiwari. Local policemen included Lakshman Singh, SSI, Rishikesh, and Constable Arvind Giri.
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ITBP fights bear attacks
Dehradun, January 7
Guarding the Indo-Tibetan border alongside the Niti Valley in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, ITBP personnel are facing a precarious situation. Black bears are frequently attacking its camp at Joshimath seeking its winter food stock. The situation came to such a pass that recently, a bear forced into a floor mill of the paramilitary force and subsequently entered the storehouse devouring the rations kept for the force personnel. Finding no respite, the ITBP has written to the office of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Dehradun, seeking its prompt issue to ward off bear attacks. The ITBP sources claimed that the bears were now not only eating up their rations, but also attacking their men. A fortnight back, forest authorities shot down a male black bear weighing around 4.60 kg. But the bears’ incursions have nevertheless continued unabated. There have been several other incidents of bear attacks in the Chamoli region. There have been incidents when bears have forced their entry into cowsheds, killing cows a number of times. A bear carrying a calf on its back some time back amply reveals the ferocity of attacks by bears, which by nature are considered herbivorous. Other parts of Garhwal hills in Uttarakhand too have been witness to bear attack incidents. According to office of the Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden records, as many as nine incidents of bear attacks have taken mostly in the months of October, November and December in the Garhwal region. “Bear menace is a recent phenomenon and village people are not accustomed to such bear attacks,” pointed out Prakask, a Joshimath resident. He said while leopard attack had been frequent in this part of the country, the rising number of bear attacks are a new dangerous trend. Wildife officials admit that bears are certainly dangerous as they attack their prey with deceit and believe in ruthless killings. “A distinct trend of bears incursions on populated areas has been witnessed in recent months. This can be due to shortage of food and water inside forest areas,” admit senior Uttarakhand forest official Paramjeet Singh. Significantly, winter months prove most vulnerable for people up in the hills of Uttarakhand. Rising human incursions into forest areas leading to destruction of wildlife habitat has also brought wildlife particular leopards and bears into direct conflict with humans. Even smaller animals like monkeys have turned to be a bigger menace as they destroy vegetables and other crops. Many farmers have even started keeping air guns to protect themselves from these monkeys, which at times cause injuries to local villagers.
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Relief for victims of leopard attacks sought
Dehradun, January 7 Former secretary of the Congress committee Vinod Chauhan said due to the attacks of the leopards the life of the villagers had become difficult and the Forest Department had initiated no action in this regard. He said DFO Minakshi Joshi had announced to give Rs 15,000 to the injured and out of which Rs 5,000 had already been paid and the rest would be given later. While allowances for those who died in the attack have already been sent. The villagers demanded that the jungle area around the villages should be wired and arrangements of lights should be made there for the safety of the residents. The memorandum was submitted to the DFO who assured the villagers of doing the needful, said Chauhan.
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Experts discuss petro separation technologies with less pollution
Dehradun, January 7 Inaugurating a two-day Indo Norwegian Seminar on Advances in Separation Technologies at the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, Professor Saraf held that while separation processes were an important component for any industry whether chemical, petrochemical, petroleum and metallurgical, distillation continued to be so far at the centre stage for refining and petrochemicals and stressed that advancements in the separation techniques were the need of the hour. The traditional separation techniques have reached their technological maturity and new techniques based on adsorption and membranes are gradually being implemented in many current as well as niche applications where traditional methods fail. Professor Saraf said he was hopeful that the seminar would bring forth the advancement in separation technologies, requirement of new materials as well as new ideas, which would help the country and the industry to mitigate CO2 emissions. Earlier, Director, IIP, MO Garg said it was a welcome initiative that the IIP and SINTEF of Norway had taken lead in organising a second Indo-Norwegian Seminar on Advances in Separation Technologies at the IIP. He said the low-cost technologies adaptable to combat climate change were very much needed taking into account the mounting concern over global warming and the urgent need for CO2 mitigation. Elisabeth Tangstad from Oslo, Norway and Dr AN Goswami, convener of the seminar, were other prominent speakers at the inaugural session. Part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the IIP, Dehradun, the seminar is primarily focusing on promoting interaction among various research and development groups active in the area of separation technologies and the refining industry and also to create awareness about the latest developments in adsorbent materials and adsorptive separations area. Delegates from the oil industry, research organisations and universities of India and scientists from Oslo, Norway, are participating in the seminar.
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Short-term course for managers of higher education institutes at IIT-R
Roorkee, January 7 According to organisers, Intellectual Property Rights Cell, the role of modern educational and research institutions is no longer restricted to academic research and study. “Collaborative research, links between universities and the corporate sector, technology transfer and commercialisation are the need of the hour and should be advocated and promoted constantly as well. Therefore, the effective management of intellectual property issues is crucial to guarantee that the results produced in the institutions reach the market place for effectively transformation into market value and intellectual capital,” said the organisers. Higher educational institutes worldwide bear great but mostly unexploited research potential, and still lack effective structures, processes and competence to efficiently develop and manage intellectual property as well as knowhow to exploit and harness the benefits of intellectual property effectively. During the course, the lecture series will contribute towards creating necessary awareness among academics, researchers, higher education managers and enterprises cooperating with higher education institutions on the tactical approach of institution property creation and will equip them with state-of-art administrative knowledge of the intellectual property management on research results in the field. Apart from that, the objectives of the course include counselling and organising research work towards intellectual property creation, to identify value in research and innovation, develop suitable infrastructures for protection and management and appropriate strategies for commercialisation of the intellectual property. The course will be from February 1 to 5. To introduce to the teaching community and students, the latest findings on the topic chemical evolution and origin of life, a three-day international workshop comprising invited talks and poster presentations is being organised at the Department of Chemistry here. During the workshop, topics related to pre-biotic chemistry, RNA world, search for life in our solar system and beyond will be discussed. As “chemical evolution and origin of life” is one of the emerging topics of interdisciplinary research, the workshop is proposed to provide a platform for interaction among the teaching faculty and students for enhanced activities in the field of chemical evolution and origin of life, observe the organisers. The workshop will be held from March 5 to 7.
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Centre for biotechnology research set up
Nainital, January 7 This laboratory will be inaugurated tomorrow by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. The work for the centre, which is being viewed as an important component of the State Biotechnology Programme (SBP), was started in February, 2009. According to Director of the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST) Dr Rajendra Dobhal, “The centre will serve as a platform to young scientists to upgrade their knowledge and do high-end research in the field of biotechnology, biochemistry and tissue culture”. He further said the laboratory would act as a platform for scientists from across the country to interact and help promote collaborative researches with universities and research institutes across the globe. The laboratory is also expected to serve the mandate with a knowledge powerhouse in commercialisation of medicinal, aromatic plants and promote the hill state as the hub of alternative medicine. It will also be instrumental in developing infrastructure for housing the best of the human resources with emphasis on commercialisation. According to a UCOST spokesperson, “The SBP has also played a pivotal role in taking science to far-flung rural areas of the state to make science education interesting”. “Setting up of such centres will fill the vacuum created by the lack of a biotechnology-based national level laboratory with a focus on the mountain regions,” says Dr DP Uniyal, a scientific officer of UCOST. He said such ventures would also help promote meaningful researches with reference to climate change, global warming and natural resources. The UCOST spokesperson said the laboratory would not only have state-of-art equipment and faculty, but also very strong industrial linkages, along with cross sectoral and multi-disciplinary facilities. It would cater to the Research and Development (R&D) work relevant to the needs of mountains like medicinal and aromatic plants and herbal systems, medical research in mountain specific diseases, bio-informatics, bio-safety and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues with reference to the mountains.
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Sharad’s fiver scripts Rao Academy’s win
Dehradun, January 7
Chasing the target of 285 run, the Doon Warrior team was all-out for 71 runs. The team could not give a fine start and lost both its openers for 22 runs. Middle order batsman Kaushal did begin on a good note, but failed to play a long innings. For the Rao Cricket Academy team, Sharad took five wickets in his seven-over spell, whereas Mahak Singh took three wickets for his team.
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Many junior cagers, but few at senior level
Dehradun, January 7 The state team first won a gold in 2004-05, defeating Punjab by 18 points. Last year they won a bronze at
the tournament. This year again they reached the semi-finals, where they narrowly lost to the Railways team by two points. It is pertinent to mention that Dehradun has turned into a basketball hub at the school level in the recent decade with numerous children taking to the game. But when it comes to making a state team of men in basketball, the association is at a deficit of talented players. “In spite of the fact that we have been doing well at the national level, we do not have enough talented players for the men state team. The reason is that a majority of the schoolchildren have moved out of the state for higher studies after completing their schooling. Therefore, we have to mainly depend on the ONGC and BEG players, who fulfil our requirement for the men basketball team. All of them are extremely talented,” said secretary of the Basketball Association and coach of the state team Vinod Vachani. Apart from men, the state team has also been doing well at the sub-junior, under-16 and under-18 levels. “At these levels, we have an abundance of school talent coming in. We work on these young talented players constantly throughout the year before selecting them for the state team,” said Vachani. Vachani is a well-known name in basketball in the city and at the national level. He has made the game so popular in the city that every school in the city has adopted the game and recruited coaches for their school
basketball teams.
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Little Master Club clinch cricket title
Dehradun, January 7
The LMCC team won the toss and elected to bat first. But the team could not give a desired start to the match. Its openers were soon sent back to the pavilion by the RCA team, giving a double jolt to the team in the first two overs. It was first down batsman Manish, who played sensibly for his team. He scored 30 runs off 25 balls. Another batsman Vipul supported him well at the other end and went on to score 27 runs. Middle order batsman Amit contributed to the score and made 12 runs. The LMCC team piled 99 runs. For the RCA team, Prakash, Hanuman and Mohit gave an important breakthrough throughout the match. Three of them took two wickets each. The RCA team began on a poor note in the match. The LMCC team bowler bowled a tight line and length claiming five wickets when the team’s score was 17 runs. Opener Mohit went for five runs while another opener Maninder made four runs only. It was middle order batsman Hanuman, who stabilised the team’s run rate. He went on to made 26 runs off 34 balls. Surender supported Hanuman well and made 31 runs. For the LMCC team, Shiker picked up four wickets, whereas Vipul Chandra took two wickets. Mukesh, Sonu and Amit took one wicket each.
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U’khand Cricket Academy emerge winners
Dehardun, January 7 The Garhwal Club team was all-out for 133 runs. None of the batsmen occupied the crease for long. It was Nitesh who scored the highest for the team with 25 runs. Govind scored 17 runs and Devender made 11 runs. For the Uttarakhand Cricket Academy team, Albert took four wickets while Rahul took two wickets.
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MDDA protest called off
Dehradun, January 7 In their memorandum to the authority, the protesters have mentioned the demands of a hike in their salary as per the Sixth Pay Commission with regularisation of the ministerial employees, promotion orders of the waiting members and setting up a structure of the ministerial workforce. “Today, we had a meeting with our Director regarding the implementation of our demands. We want the government to soon look into the matter and provide the justice,” said association president SP Rana Koti.
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There seems to no end to the ever-increasing population of stray dogs in the Doon valley. It is not only causing problems to residents, but also reflects the laid-back attitude of the authorities in providing any respite.
Dehradun, January 7
Dehradun, January 7
Dehardun, January 7
