Dehradun, January 12
Former Andhra Pradesh Governor ND Tiwari’s New Year Party today in Dehradun had very few visitors with almost all senior and middle-level Congress leaders avoiding it on one pretext or the other.

Earlier, Tiwari’s luncheons in Dehradun seldom were thinly attended. After experiencing much humiliation in the aftermath of tapes showing him in a compromising position with women surfaced on a TV channel, the former Governor today had few guests.

Ever since a humiliated ND Tiwari returned to Dehradun after his alleged involvement in the sex scandal as Andhra Pradesh Governor, the octogenarian Congress stalwart seemed left with few friends even in his home state.

Hosted by a party leader, who held a quasi-ministerial post during the earlier Tiwari government in Uttarakhand, Tiwari’s New Year bash hardly had the presence of any senior Congress functionaries, including legislators, with Gopal Singh Rana being the sole exception.

Most Tiwari loyalists, despite getting the invitation, avoided the occasion on one pretext or the other, some coming up with popular excuses of outstation engagements or other such preoccupation.

Among the lower rung of Congress leaders - Vivekanand Khanduri, Brahmaswaroop Brahmachari, Vinay Saraswat, Lalchand Sharma, Manish Nagpal, Naveen Bisht and Yakub Siddiqui were present. Other prominent personalities included Gorkha Morcha leader JB Karki and Dr S Farooq.

The Tiwari New Year bash came at a time when Uttarakhand Congress co-in charge Bhola Pandey had recently issued instructions asking Congress office-bearers to keep a safe distance from any programmes organised at the behest of ND Tiwari or his loyalists.

Some Tiwari supporters, led by a former minister, had tried to stage a protest against an NGO that had held protests against Tiwari in Dehradun.

Tiwari, in his earlier tenure of Uttarakhand Chief Minister, had frequently hosted parties on the State Foundation Day, Holi, Diwali and other celebrations. These parties had then registered mammoth gatherings.

Interestingly, while the number of visitors at today’s Tiwari New Year party were not more than 150, even those attending it made an early exit.

Certainly the belated New Year party generated much interest within media circles.

Dehradun, January 12
The Police Department doesn’t seem to have learnt any lesson from the Saturday incident, in which an untrained guard, who was a gunner of Child Development Board Chairman Govindi Koranga in Pitthoragarh, had claimed the life of a person when he was adjusting his carbine and the fire got shot from it.

The government continues to deploy untrained gunners for the security of VIPs in the state, giving rise to the possibility of another tragedy of this dimension.

In this incident, the bullet had pierced through 48-year-old Girish Chander Pathak’s abdomen at Koranga’s residence. He was shifted to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead. Girish was a grade IV employee with an NGO of Koranga.

Similar incidents had occurred in 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 1997.

In 2008, a shot fired from gunner of a UP MLA had resulted in the death of one person. The incident had occurred at a local hotel in Dehradun.

Similarly, in 2007, a gunner posted at a Telegraph Office at Rishikesh had accidentally pressed the trigger of his gun resulting in the death of one person.

In 2006, on the Rajpur road a similar incident had taken place resulting in one death.

According to the norms, a three-month training is essential for any gunner who is to be deployed for such duties, besides the nine-month basic training of cops. However, there are several gunners deployed in the state who are without this specialised training.

IGP (Garwhal region) MA Ganpathy told The Tribune that there was a three-month training required for gunners and which was essential. On asking as to why untrained gunners continued to be deployed on duty, he replied that he wasn’t sure about it and it was most unlikely.

However, he agreed that it happened sometimes in an emergency. “If the government demands 300 gunners and we have only 200, in that case we cannot deny the orders and have to send those even without any specialised training as well,” he informed.

SP Puran Singh Rawat of Pitthorgarh, where the incident happened this week, said, “We couldn’t help it, as there was shortage of staff and they had to deploy untrained gunners also on duty”.

“Out of the 600 total force here, 200 have been sent for the Maha Kumbh mela and this has led to a staff crunch. Even I have an untrained gunner.

“The patrolling is also being done by the Home Guards in the area, which is otherwise done by the constables and the head constables of the police station area concerned,” informed the SP.

“This is happening in every region of the state. Though the gunners have the basic training, which is of nine months (which is given to every cop), but not the specialised one,” he added.

Officials in the Police Department said even they had to provide gunners to those who weren’t deserving, but owing to there influential status in the town and good connections they get the guard who is seen as a symbol of influence and prestige.

Pitthoragarh, January 12
The historic Uttarayani Mela will begin on January 13 in Bageshwar. While in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Uttarayani is a kite-flying festival, it is an occasion to please the crow in the Kumaon region.

The people in the region throng the confluence of rivers on this day and offer ‘argh’ to the sun god. Due to its high-flying ability (close to the sun), the crow is considered a representative of the sun god.

On this day, it is offered the first morsel of various dishes that have been prepared the previous night.

On a day prior to Uttarayani, the sun enters the Makar zodiac sign. Denizens of Kumaon prepare dishes of rice and wheat flour which include the delicious ‘ghugute’. Children wake up early in the morning to offer these preparations to crows.

The children plead to the crows to take their offerings and give them a big house or nice wife in exchange.

When asked why the crow is considered capable of fulfilling all wishes, noted Hindi writer Shekhar Joshi said that it is only one bird which does not migrate during winter and remains with the local people in every season.

“This festival might have been started by sun-worshipping communities in mid-Asia before the 10th century. When they migrated to the Himalayan region, they brought the tradition of sun worship along,” said Dr Ram Singh, noted socio-cultural historian of the Kumaon region.

According to ancient historical scriptures, the Shakas migrated from Iran and spread in the Himalayan region. They began the tradition of sun worship in Himalayan society as these people in Iran, Egypt and Iraq were already worshipping the sun in different forms.

Dr Yashwant Singh Katoch in his book ‘Madhaya Himalaya ki Kala’ has written that sun worship in north India was dominant from 1st to 6th century AD. The northern Indian style of sun worship probably has its roots in Iran.

PD Pant, an expert on local culture, said “The solar year in Kumaon begins on Baisakh Sankranti when the sun enters the ‘Mesh’ zodiac (Aries) and concludes when the sun enters ‘Makar’ sign in the month of ‘Magh’.

The crow was considered sacred even in pre-Brahminical traditions. The offerings left by the crow are given to pregnant cows. It is believed that this would lead to the birth of a female calf.

Pant added that even during the worship of local deities, the Kumaoni people have a tradition of keeping a separate share for crows.

The day assumed special significance in 1921 when the Kumaoni people gave up the practice of ‘kuli begar’ (bonded labour) on the confluence of Saryu and Gomati rivers at Bageswar under the leadership of BD Panday and Hargovend Pant, prominent leaders of the freedom movement from the Kumaon region.

Ever since, Uttarayani at Bageswar has special significance though people in the whole of Kumaon take a holy dip at every river confluence in the region and offer ‘argh’ to sun god.

Dehradun, January 12
The Sikh Maha Sabha and the Shiromani Guru Sikh Prachar Committee (SGSPC) held a joint press conference today to announce their plan to create the Uttarakhand Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (USGPC) in the state. Harpal Singh Sethi, national president of the sabha, was selected convener of the proposed USGPC.

National convener of the SGSPC Inderjeet Singh Chugh said it was important to constitute such a committee in each state to strengthen the Sikh community there.

Sethi, too, emphasised the creation of more such Sikh committees.

Convener from UP Sardar Daljit Singh Kochchar and patrons Inderjeet Singh Batra and SP Singh decided to organise a huge congregation of members of various Sikh organisations hailing from 10 states, including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, MP, Punjab, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir, on February 5 in Saharanpur. The aim of the congregation would be to discuss a strategy to strengthen the Sikh community and select presidents of UP and Uttarakhand Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committees. After that, Chugh said, their first priority would be to take back the land of the historical Gurdwara Sahib of Shri Guru Nanak Dev, which had been removed from Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar.

Nainital, January 12
Kumaon University is awaiting allocation and distribution of seats in various private colleges so that it can undertake the counselling for the students enrolled for the Bachelors in Education (BEd) course.

Owing to a long delay in the counselling and starting of the session, the fate of thousands of students is in a limbo. There is even a talk of this being a zero session for BEd students.

However, Registrar Sudhir Budakoti, while dispelling the fears related to this being a zero session, told The Tribune that, “We are just awaiting the seat allocation and distribution with regards to various private colleges so that we can conduct the counselling in one go. Conducting counselling sessions separately for government and private college students is not practically viable and would lead to unnecessary problems”.

According to media reports, the entrance examination to the course was held in September. The results were declared in October and there were about 25,000 students who had cleared the examination. But the session is yet to begin and the students are uncertain as to what lies in the store for them.

In the middle of last month, Kumaon University had taken upon itself the onus of counselling for private colleges offering the BEd course.

The university wanted to start counselling within a week, but it got delayed.

In the recent past, there had been a detailed probe into the infrastructure and the facilities available in the private colleges offering this course. This probe had followed the instances of various irregularities coming to light in the last session.

However, since the university got the reports of the investigations, it announced its intention to start the counselling for these colleges.

The university decided to go for counselling for the private colleges as it felt that there was a tendency among the managements of private colleges to enroll students by taking money and in this process the very concept of merit was given a go-by.

Once the counselling is done on the basis of merit, the students will be allotted to different private colleges.

Nainital, January 12
A new initiative is underway to promote village tourism in two blocks of Garhwal. The scheme envisages a tripartite arrangement between the community at the grassroots, the banks providing loans to entrepreneurs and an NGO named UPASaC to make the programme a success.

A weeklong workshop on the subject for participants of Guttu block of Bhilangana and Kempty block was held here at the Institute of Professional Studies and Development Research (IPSDR).

Director of IPSDR RC Misra said, “The concept revolves around encouraging villagers residing at approachable locations to extend their residential facilities by taking loans from banks and offer the same to visitors to their areas. The visitors would be offered traditional meals and given an insight to the culture of the village. All this would be offered at a nominal price that would ensure some earning to the host”.

He further stated, “The main strength of this initiative is that it is a tripartite arrangement. This ensures that the bank is not worried about the pay back of the loan it forwards. At the same time the villagers do not look at it as a mere opportunity to avail the subsidy. The NGO in question would just be a facilitator”.

He said any bank that wanted to be a part of the initiative was welcome and as of now Nainital Bank and the Bank of Baroda had shown a keen interest in being a part of the initiative.

Mishra said the participants, most of whom were youngsters, had shown interest to take up the initiative. He told the participants that such trainings were useful only if the participants went back and actually implemented the projects on the ground. He said village tourism had an immense scope and lots to offer both to the tourists as well as the entrepreneurs.

The Head of the Department of Tourism Studies Dr Ajay Arora was one of the key instructors at the programme.

Dehradun, January 12
Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik has called for the implementation of 74 amendment in letter and in spirit. “The amendment has given great deal of powers to the panchayats and local bodies but whenever the local bodies approach the state government with their plan the state planning commission puts hurdles in its way. It is a reality that the financial condition of the local bodies is not good,” Kaushik said.

The minister was speaking at an orientation workshop on the objectives, implementation strategy and benefits of Asian Development Bank-assisted Uttarakhand Urban Sector Development Investment Programme organised by the Urban Development Department for various stake holders.

Addressing the gathering, the minister said the programme was under way in Haridwar, Nainital and Dehradun and would be extended to 31 local bodies to tackle the problem of water supply, sewerage and improvement of slums in the second phase. “The assistance is aimed at making the local bodies self-independent so that they are able to generate their own resources. We would soon be introducing GIS-backed mapping of properties and assessment at the local bodies level. This would help us get a better idea of our properties and enhance our tax collection for which Asian Development Bank is giving assistance,” said Kaushik.

He said the state would constitute awards for best performing local bodies and these would be presented as examples to be replicated in the rest of the state. Calling for cooperation between elected representatives, government and local bodies functionaries, Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Anup Wadhawan said the investment programmes should go beyond the narrow focus of utilisation of budget by focusing on the strengthening of projects, so that on the ground level the works are visible.

“The end result of programmes should be towards bringing changes in the lives of the people for whom they have actually been launched. During the course of preparation of projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM), the participation of local bodies representatives was a mere formality. It lacked depth. In the future, we would be looking for an extended participation of panchayats as envisaged in the 74 amendment, under which 18 functions have to be transferred, nine are already with them and the remaining have to be delegated,” Anup Wadhawan said.

In her welcome address, Nidhi Mani Tripathi, Programme Director, Uttarakhand Urban Sector Development Investment Programme (UUSDIP), underlined the need for meeting deadlines while implementing the programmes. “The ADB assistance is in the form of loans to the state government for the improvement of local bodies. It is the headache of the state governments to repay the loans. But, it is a time-bound programme with specific targets that have to be kept in mind.

Dehradun, January 12
Doon Tigers beat CAU by 88 runs at the 58th District Cricket League under way at Survey Stadium here today. In the second match, the CAU-II team won by nine wickets against Doon Soldier Cricket Club here today.

In the first match, Doon Tigers piled up a total of 260 runs in 40 overs. The team received two jolts in the first five overs losing both openers for a low score.

Their first-down batsman scored 34 runs off 25 balls, hitting six fours in his innings. Middle-order batsman Pradeep scored 75 runs off 68 balls. Abhay and Pradeep helped the team score at a good pace.

It was Ashu for the Doon Tigers who accelerated the innings run rate. He scored 55 runs off 40 balls smashing nine fours. For CAU, Vijay took three wickets in his eight-over spell. Tony and Nitin took two wickets each.

Chasing the target of 261 runs, the CAU team was all out for 172 runs. Opener Nitin Verma scored 26 runs off 27 balls. Vijay Joshi made 34 runs, lower-order batsman Tony scored 42 runs off 43 balls.

For Doon Tigers, Rakesh took four wickets ripping the middle order of the CAU team. Ashu and Rajeev claimed two wickets each.

Meanwhile in the second match, Doon Soldier Cricket Club scored 188 runs in 32 overs. Amarjeet scored 54 runs off 69 balls while Bunty scored 20 runs. Sachin scored 28 runs. For CAU-II, Deepak and Manish took two wickets each.

In reply, CAU-II reached the target with ease. Openers Mukesh and Manish added 171 runs in the first 14 overs smashing the bowlers all over the ground.

Mukesh scored 75 runs off 40 balls, hitting 10 fours and three sixes while Manish scored 83 runs off 40 balls smashing 15 fours and three sixes. For Doon Soldier Cricket Club, Amar was the only bowler to claim a wicket.

Dehradun, January 12
Danda Lakhond Cricket Club will miss action this time at the 58th District Cricket League. The team was referred to as a “Lagaan” team of Dehradun. It was a unique team at the league that comprised players not well off. But, their love for cricket has made them come together as a team despite their financial problems.

They gave a valiant performance at the league last time. But, this time they will miss the action. Their employment has forced them to stay out of the league. The team consisted of players who were working as painters, vegetable vendors, carpenters, suppliers, etc.

Maniram, who is the captain of the team and a painter by profession, said: “This time we were unable to get together because of our professions. I have to complete all my tenders by the end of January, thus leaving with me little time to spare for the game. Though we are not participating, we are associated with the league in some way or the other. Our love for the game is just unending”.

Despite the fact that he is not participating in the league, he has contributed to it by painting the scoreboard on the wall and had also made number plates for scoring purpose during the league matches. But, his undying love for the game makes him say: “Although I could not participate in the league, I will reorganise my team for the T20 championship, which is to be organised in April at DBS College,” asserted Maniram.

Another member of the team Ashish, too, has failed to do any thing for his team. He was busy looking after his old mother who is ill. “We did discuss about forming a team for the league earlier, but in between I had to leave for Delhi with my mother, who had taken ill all of a sudden. Thereafter I had little idea what was decided by other team members,” added Ashish.

The team had been participating in the District Cricket League for the past many years. Most of their players make efforts to continue playing cricket in spite of their busy schedule.

On the day of the match, DLCC team members use to take a day off from works to make sure they did not miss the match, put aside all their assignments. Interestingly, the team does not hold any practice session for the match. Most of the players of the team are above 34 years of age, but are very agile on field when it comes to playing.

Dehradun, January 12
Now with just two months left for final board examinations, IIT coaching centres are helping students to overcome their queries and are conducting weekly classes.With a belief that the board examinations hold lot of importance and cause stress among students and parents, these centres around the city are focusing on students’ vital needs.

The batches for IIT and AIEEE aspirants began in the mid of last year and along with three hours of theory classes, students were thoroughly prepared by conducting various class tests, sample tests and mock tests. However during the board examinations, to keep the motivation level high and students’ interest in studies, the coaching centres are busy helping their aspirants. Lakshya coaching centre director Dr SK Singh informs, “Now a days as children are giving pre-board examination, instead of regular five-day classes we are conducting classes for three days and on the basis of demand helping our students to clear their doubts and perform well in the board examinations.”

Aspirants enrolled with coaching centres are welcomed and in case of queries, classes are arranged and are also made to take mock tests particularly designed for the board examinations. “Though I am having pre-board examinations, still I am going to coaching centre so that last-minute doubts can be cleared,” said one of the aspirants.

“We are focusing on pre-board preparations because if not IIT, students can at least clear AIEEE examination, in which 50 per cent of the syllabus is similar to the board pattern,” said Dr Singh.

Akaash, one of the leading coaching centres of the city, is also attending students and preparing them for the board examinations. Compared to four days of rigorous studies during regular coaching, for the students conducting board examinations are being called for three days and are given proper attention to take the examinations with full confidence. “In the days of the pre-board examinations almost 50 per cent of my students are coming to attend special classes, by the means of which we are totally focusing on board-related queries,” informed Professor DK Mishra, head of Akaash coaching centre.

However, in the mid of board preparations, these coaching centres have plans to even focus on the IIT entrance preparation in the coming days. “As we want our students to come out with flying colours in the board examinations. And as far as the IIT preparations are concerned we have already covered a lot, but still for the last days once the board examinations get over we are going to start a 14-day revision so that students are all set to sit for the IIT entrance. Besides, we are always there for students and parents to guide them,” added Professor Mishra.

“For our students after the pre-board examinations, we are going to start a crash course and will conduct Sunday classes also,” added Dr Singh.

Dehradun, January 12
With a motive to transform young India, under the aegis of Liberty, a famous brand of footwear, Anything Skool, a one-stop store for schoolchildren was opened here yesterday.

The pioneering concept will cater to all needs at school, designed on the theme of one-stop school solution. The concept relies on the commitment to consistently provide branded, value for money merchandise in apparel, footwear, school bus, smart I-cards, sports goods, furniture, accessories and stationery.

Liberty Director Vivek Bansal has been the mastermind behind this innovation and after Ludhiana, this is the second branch in Dehradun.

“As it has come out with such a creative concept so that students from class pre-kg till XII can get high-quality school items under one roof as well experience a fresh change from monotonous routine, leading to an increased level of confidence and interest,” said channel partner of Specific School Solutions Sanjay Garg.

To promote this latest venture, schools are being contacted so that link can be established and people get enlightened about the fundamentals behind Anything Skool. Interestingly, the concept of smart I-card is easy to use and has a novel approach. With security and complete information flow, the smart card can be used as a debit card also.