Explorers’ wishlist

Dehradun, May 4
BDS students of Narayan Swami Dental College today were prevented from meeting the Chief Minister by the heavy police force present at the Pacific Hotel.

The agitating students demanding clarity on the issue of affiliation were prevented from presenting a memorandum to the Chief Minister.

The students pointed out that while approval from the Dental Council of India (DCI) was pending for the third year, the Chairman is already demanding fee for the fourth year.

“We are being pressurised to deposit the money 
when the institute authorities have still not managed to get approval for the third year,” pointed out a student.

Giving a list of irregularities, the students said that the college did not have a proper faculty, no OPD and no clinic which are essential for third-year students.

The students charged that they were taken for a ride as the college was included in the counselling conducted by the government through the Uttaranchal Premedical Test after which they were allocated BDS seats in the college.

They said that first year and third year of the BDS course have already been declared zero years.

The students demanded clarity on the issue so that they could plan their future which, they say, is already in the dark. They urged the government to allow them to migrate to another college in Uttarakhand so that they could complete their course.

Haridwar, May 4
An unprecedented series of events took place at Rishikul Ayurvedic Medical College today with scenes of stone-pelting, protest, arson, verbal and physical duels among medical students and college management witnessed there. The agitating students belonged to the 2008 BAMS batch of which 18 students got supplementaries and two failed in examination. They were assisted by at least six students of the BAMS 2005 batch, also failures, in creating ruckus on the college campus.

Such was the scale of violence that 43 students were arrested on charges of indulging in violence, trespassing, criminal intimidation, destroying public property, causing hurt to persons.

Initially, the students were protesting against awarding supplementaries and below-average marks to most of the students of the batch. They gheraoed the Head of the Department AN Pandey’s office. But, on not getting a satisfactory response from the college management to their demands, some of the students vandalised the office. Soon others, including girl students, joined in the agitators in ransacking the college property.

After ransacking the HOD office, the students targeted other rooms of the college and burned several vehicles belonging to college staff. A four-wheeler, besides more than four two-wheelers, were burned as the students moved towards the Principal’s office. But, with the timely intervention of the police, the situation was controlled.

The Principal, Dr Pradeep Bharadwaj, told The Tribune that the college administration had been wrongly targeted by the students. He said the college had been providing best of the facilities to the students, but if the students themselves didn’t perform well, it was not fair to put the blame on them.

“I myself handed out the results yesterday. Barring a few students, no one came to meet me. I spoke to some of the students that there was nothing to worry and as they can still give the supplementary paper without losing a year of studies. What happened today seemed like it’s not the act of students, but of some hardcore anti-social elements”.

Dr Bharadwaj said though there was a provision of 20-mark internal assessment, most students either didn’t attempt it or take it seriously. Besides, most of them didn’t even fall under the 75 per cent attendance criterion, which itself spoke of their academic seriousness and definitely would have affected their overall performance. For this they were to blame themselves, he added.

“I am deeply hurt at the vandalism by students. After teachers gave me a complaint in writing, we had to lodge a criminal complaint against the erring students as the situation could have aggravated with outsiders too joining in. Violence is no answer to any problem and this I have to urge to future doctors who are behaving like anti-social elements,” said Dr Bharadwaj.

However, the students blamed the college management for their violent step. They said they were deliberately given low marks in the practical examination and had been targeted.

“We are adamant on our demands and will fight till we get justice. We all are united and will see to it that each and every student gets justice,” said a local girl student of BAMS.

Station House Officer of Jwalapur BS Chauhan said a case had been filed by the college management against the erring students and the police arrested 43 students on various charges. The police had been deployed on the college premises.

It is pertinent to mention here that the past year too students of Rishikul Ayurvedic Medical College and Gurukul Ayurvedic Medical College had started an agitation against respective college managements over low marks, increase in stipend and other issues.

Haridwar, May 4
While several programmes are being conducted for generating awareness about global warming, environment and having a disciplined healthy lifestyle, young children of Bachpan play school today set an example for grownups.

The tiny tots in a nice and innovative way gave a message that if seriously adhered, society as a whole can easily resolve global warming, communal tensions, pollution in the Ganga river, saving of tigers and other social issues.

Children as per guidance from teachers had collected various newspapers, magazines cuttings on these social issues and drew their own visions on these topics. They also cited small steps in eradicating these problems, starting from themselves and their parents.

The tiny tots are dwelling on the usage of jute bags, total abandon of polythene, putting wastage material in disposal buckets, cleaning of hands before eating, healthy food in their tiffins to asking their families to contribute in such a ways to lessen the negative impacts on environment.

Nitin Singh Ahluwalia, Director of the school, said, “The idea conceptualised as we thought it better to first generate awareness among our students and then they can start better with their families and so on”.

“Now children are quite sensitive about doing anything which harms the environment. Like now they bring jute bags instead of plastics, urge their parents to follow a healthy and disciplined life and chalk out minute steps they follow at home to contribute to environment and society,” said Ahluwalia.

The works of Bhoomika Modi, Vedant Verma of UKG-(A), Shrishti Bedi of Nursery and Sanchi Singh of LKG were much appreciated and awarded.

Programme coordinators Nitin Ahluwalia, Manju Bhasin,Kunika Arora and other staff members were pivotal in moulding the children for the event. 

Nainital, May 4
The district administration has decided to ban the use of polythene bags which are of lesser specification than 20 microns. An order to this effect has been given by District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli.

Bagauli has directed all Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs), officers of Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Palika to ensure that polythene bags of less than 20 microns specification are banned and anyone using these should be dealt with strictly.

Bagauli has conveyed that the ban on usage of polythene is high on the personal agenda of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. He said excessive use of polythene bags and their improper disposal was leading to choking of drains on the one side and leading to problems in stray animals that were consuming these from dustbins on the other. In addition to this, it is emerging as a big environmental hazard on account ofproblems in its disposal.

The SDMs and the other officers have been told to carry out special drives in their respective areas from time to time to ensure that no one resorts to using bags of less than 20 micron specification. They have been told to size the bags being used whenever they come across them so that they are not circulated in the markets. The officials have also been asked to mark the areas where such bags are more in use.

Bagauli has asked for submission of time-bound reports on the action being taken on these fronts. The SDMs have been asked to undertake a survey in their areas to identify units manufacturing bags of less than 20 microns specification and stop their functioning immediately.

Dehradun, May 4
The backbone of the law enforcement system in hills, the revenue police has been on strike for the past two years and people in the hills have no one to turn to in close proximity for lodging their complaints.

Demanding a pay package equivalent to the police, patwaris all across Uttarakhand hills have been agitating for the past two years.

At the heart of the dispute is the unresolved issue of higher pay scales demanded by patwaris citing the work load. “We are responsible for at least 70 per cent of the work (area) in the hills, yet we are underpaid. We are demanding parity in scales with the Police Department,” said an agitated Bhagwati Prasad Jagudi, president of the Parvartiya Patwari Sangh.

With the police, counselling centres and support schemes mostly located in towns and the patwaris on strike, the hill people are being forced to trek to respective tehsils to lodge a complaint at the Naib Tehsildar office.

“The patwaris have left the police work in the state as they want amendments to the pay scale. In their place, the naib tehsildars are performing the duty,” said Kunwar Raj Kumar, Additional Chief Revenue Commissioner.

Till this day, the revenue police with 1,220 chowkis and 250 thanas has no arms and ammunition and the good old stick is what they carry on duty. The peace and tranquillity of the hills have so far made things easier for the revenue police. However, of late, there have been instances of kidnapping and dowry-related cases. In the past three years, the total number of criminal cases reported in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions is 152 in 2010, 148 in 2009 and 294 in 2008.

An old system of keeping a vigil on law and order and collecting revenue from the public through a patwari or the local revenue officer has been in existence since 1861. It is said despite the difficult terrain and remoteness of the villages, a patwari knows his area like the back of his hand. Most of the disputes are solved amicably by patwaris who even pitch in during election duties and are also part of disaster-management teams.

Compensatory allowances were offered to the patwaris, however, the move did not find favour with the government and the proposal was rejected at a Cabinet meeting.

“The other employees waiting in the wings from different departments too would have demanded similar treatment. It would have had a disastrous effect on the government’s financial health,” said a top official. The Parvartiya Patwari Sangh is demanding a pay scale in the range of Rs 5,500-15,000 for patwaris and are refusing to budge from their stand.

“We do not want any uniform nor any ammunition and till our demands are not met we will continue with our stir,” stressed Jagduri.

Mussoorie, May 4
The Tibetan community gathered in large numbers at the Buddha Temple in the Happy Valley today to pray for those who had died in a major earthquake that occurred in the Tibetan plateau in April this year.

The Buddhist priest, along with students from Tibetan Homes, Central School for Tibetans and SOS Village, offered prayers and lit candles in the memory of the earthquake victims. Forty-day prayers are on in the temple in honour of the earthquake victims.

More than 60 Tibetan students from the Tibetan Homes Foundation have been directly affected as they have lost their parents in the mishap. A 7.1-magnitude earthquake had rattled the mountainous region of Tibet killing several hundreds and injuring thousands in the process last month.

Tibetan Women Congress president Kelsang Dolma said the Chinese authority was doing very little for the rehabilitation of the Tibetans and creating bottlenecks for relatives visiting their near and dear ones in Tibet. Members from the Tibetan Youth Association and the Tibetan Regional Federation were present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, May 4
Sushil Rawat guided Shivalik Club to enter semifinals netting two goals against the Doon Star to surpass it 2-0 in a quarterfinal of the 4th RB Singh Memorial Football Tournament held on the Pavilion Ground, here today.

Sushil scored his first goal in the 24th minute to end the first half with 1-0, as Doon Star couldn’t reply. Rawat netted the second field goal for the team in the 65th minute.

Doon Star’s boys could perform to its ability and failed to score in today’s crucial match. Meanwhile, XI Star will face Sunderwala Boys tomorrow in the last quarterfinal of the tournament.

Dehradun, May 4
The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) booked the quarterfinal berth defeating the ICL Group of Colleges, Ambala, by five wickets here today during the 28th Uttarakhand Gold Cup Cricket Tournament that was held on the Ranger’s College cricket ground.

The ICL winning the toss decided to bat first. The decision didn’t go well with it as the team could just play 22.4 overs out of the allotted 40 overs scoring meager 132 runs.

Opener Shahnawaz with 48 runs off 42 balls was the mainstay of the batting innings. Bageshwar Bisht with 24 runs off 18 balls also gave valuable contribution.

While for the LDA, Mudasar scalped four wickets and Jai Narayan pocketed two wickets. Mritunjay Tripathi, Karan Sharma and Mitrakant Yadav took a wicket each.

Batting second, LDA’s batsmen showed fine teamwork. Akashdeep Nath (23), Mudasar (22), Alok Singh (29), Amit Mishra (21) and Karan Sharma (26) gave combined contribution in the win of their squad.

The team achieved its target easily scoring 134 runs in 21.1 overs losing five wickets.

Rohit Rathi and Shahnawaz took two wickets each. Geetanshu also got one wicket. 

Dehradun, May 4
Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, Welham Girls, Lawrence School, Sanawar and Modern School, Delhi, won their respective matches at the 4th Welham Girls School Golden Jubilee All-India Basketball Tournament held at Welham Girls School here today.

In the first match, Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai, Sonepat defeated Mayo College, Ajmer by 58-35. Banti was the highest scorer for the Rai team with 21 points to her credit.

In the second match Welham Girls (blues) beat Ashok Hall Girls, Majkhali, Almora by 65-46.

Shonikar with 13 points was the highest scorer for the team.

Lawrence School, Sanawar defeated Maharani Gyatri Devi School, Jaipur in a close encounter by 34-33. Yashodan T scored 14 points for her Sanawar team.

Modern School, Delhi, also defeated Welham Girls (whites) by 50-21. Avantakia scored 15 points for the winners.

In the last match, Welham Girls (blues) defeated Mayo College, Ajmer, 61-23 in a one-sided match. Spreeha scored 11 points for the local Welhams team.

Dehradun, May 4
Kamran scored three goals to help St George’s College, Mussoorie, outplay the Welham Boys B team 4-0 in a league match of the 6th S Kandhari Memorial Hockey Tournament held on Welham Boys School ground here today.

Kamran was the star player of the winning side as he scored in 13th minute, 27th minute and 37th minute of the match. All three goals scored came through penalty corners.

Vihrgu Kapoor scored another goal for George’s in the 29th minute. Under pressure, Welham couldn’t survive the attack of their rival and failed to score even a single goal.

Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) also defeated Wynberg Allen School (WAS) 4-0.

Mohit, Piyush, Suhash and Abhimanyu scored a goal in each in the win of RIMC.

Dehradun, May 4
All matches played on the second day of the Inter-Council School Sub-Junior Boys Hockey Tournament turned out to be a one-sided affair on the Guru Nanak Academy ground here today.

In the first match, the Guru Nanak Academy blanked Aryan School 3-0. Nihal Kukreti scored two goals in the 16th minute and 39th minute. Hirdyesh scored 39th minute.

In another encounter of the day, Colonel Brown Cambridge School (CBS) thrashed the Marshall School 3-0.

Rajesh Nagar was the troublemaker for Marshall.

Rajesh Nagar struck three back-to-back goals for his side in the 20th, 22nd and 25th minutes.

Also, St George’s College, Mussoorie drubbed Welham Boys School 4-0 and Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) thrashed Wynberg Allen School (WAS) 4-1.