Haridwar, May 11
The agitation of Rishikul Medical College Ayurvedic students has taken a new turn with the agitators threatening to boycott the upcoming session examinations if their demand is not met. The examination for the BAMS batches starts from May 25.

Students protesting under the banner of the Prachariya Hatao Andolankari Samiti have stated that if there is no action on their demands for the removal of the Principal, Dr Pradeep Bharadwaj, rescheduling of practical examinations and investigation into alleged malpractices by the college management, they will be boycotting the forthcoming examination.

While the city’s biggest college Shravannath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College (SMJN) College Union has also come in the support of the agitating medicos, it has also warned the authorities of boycotting their examinations too. Union president Shakti Tyagi stated what they (Rishikul Ayurvedacharyas) are going through any college student might have to face in the future.

“We are going all out to see that our demands are met which are legal and we don’t see anyone of us backtracking. It’s not only the question of careers of our batches, but also of the future batches that will take admission in our college. We don’t want them to face the same problem,” stated Priyanka Singh, a medico student.

Meanwhile, Dr Bharadwaj has urged parents and guardians of the agitating students to persuade the students not to take a wrong path shown by outside elements. He said Rishikul Medical College, with hard labour and efforts of teachers and supporting staff, was now a role model college in the country and such agitations were doing no good to the college’s reputation. He further termed the students’ decision to close the OPD daily as unfortunate and a step not in sync with this noble profession.

But, students pointed out that they were quite wise to know what they were doing and had their parents’ support in their agitation.

“Our parents know the reality and are very well behind us. That’s why we are more confident of our agitation. Boycotting of examination is an extreme step, but we have to take this step to see our agitation through,” said Anubhav Kumar.

Dehradun, May 11
The Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun has received an SOS from the Commonwealth Games authorities in New Delhi.

The ornamental plants provided by Visakhapatnam nurseries have reportedly got infected in Delhi and the FRI has been asked for a prescription to save the diseased plants.

The nurseries in Visakhapatnam are a major contributor in the six million ornamental potted plants meant to beautify Delhi for upcoming Commonwealth Games.

“A disease has been reported in the leaves of the ornamental plants that have arrived in Delhi from Visakhapatnam. We are dispatching an FRI team for identification of the disease and providing subsequent and prompt treatment,” Dr SS Negi, Director, FRI, told The Tribune.

He, however, did not rule out that the disease could have been a fallout of the sudden change of weather for the ornamental plants after arriving in Delhi from the port city.

“The exact cause of the disease will be known once our team conducts the diagnosis. We have also been asked by Commonwealth Games authorities to camp our team of scientists in Delhi till the start of the Games to meet out any exigencies linked to ornamental and other flowering plants that have started arriving in Delhi from different parts of the country,” Dr Negi added.

Dr VRR Singh, Head, FRI Silviculture Division, along with other FRI team members, are leaving for Delhi.

Meanwhile, apart from thousands of ornamental plants from Visakhapatnam that have already arrived in Delhi, nurseries from Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad are also to provide potted plants for the Games.

Besides, Forest Research Institute too has dispatched 50,000 ornamental and flowering plants prepared at its central nursery to Delhi. FRI flowers and plants are reportedly in a healthy condition.

The FRI has also ensured that the species of plants being provided by it flower during the time of the staging of the Games. The FRI, which has to provide 4 lakh plants, is also ensuring hassle-free transport of the plants. The entire transportation exercise is being carried out during night hours to avoid any possible wilting of plants from the summer heat.

The plants, being taken in three-tiered trucks, are also being watered midway to further ensure fool-proof protection.

The Delhi Forests and Wildlife Department, the Delhi Parks and Garden Society, the Public Works Department and other civic agencies have, for the meantime, kept plants at Indraprastha and are arranging these to be further put up on the roadsides, roundabouts and other vacant areas at the various venues of different sport disciplines.

The Commonwealth Games are to be held from October 3 to 14.

Pitthoragarh, May 11
To ensure a smooth conduct of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this year, the nodal body for the yatra, Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN), has made a fresh initiative to defuse resentment among porters and pony owners by starting their registration on the advice of the district administration.

“Under this process, which has been taken up for the first time, the district administration aims to stop the exploitation of porters and pony owners at the hands of contractors as will as to give equal chance to every eligible porter and pony owner of the area,” said Navneet Pandey, SDM, Dharchula.

“We tend to register 350 local pony owners and the same number of porters from May 12 to 18 at a rate of Rs 43 per km for porter and Rs 50 per km for pony, from nearly 20 villages falling on the yatra route up to Mangti. Only those porters and pony owners who will be registered under the new system this time will be able to get the inner-line permit,” said BR Arya, yatra officer at the base camp of Dharchula.

According to the new system, the facility to provide porter and pony for the yatra, which begins from June 1 every year, would not be controlled solely by contractors. The district administration will have direct interference in this. The registration fee for the pony is Rs 850 and for the porter is Rs 850, which will be refunded after the yatra concludes. “This refundable security money is being deposited that the porter and the pony could reach on time with the yatra batches,” said Arya.

The nigam needs nearly 20 ponies and as many porters for each batch for five months from June to October. These porters and pony owners are required to visit all five trek rout camps from Ghala to the Lipulekh Pass to carry luggage and some times pilgrims on ponies. “Each pony owners can earn a minimum of Rs 7,500 and porters Rs 6,000. The pony owner can get more than one chance to do business as the number of ponies is only 130 in this area,” said the yatra officer.

Dehradun, May 11
Defence Electronics Application Laboratory (DEAL) celebrated National Technology Day here today at the Sir JC Bose Auditorium. An exhibition of DEAL developed products and technologies were organised, apart from two technical lectures.

The event was inaugurated by officiating Director KN Rao, Prof B Ghosh of, IIT, Kharagpur, and Ajay Malik. Senior scientists of DEAL delivered lectures.

The exhibition was open for the general public to create an interest in the field of electronic technology. Many students and delegates from technical institutes have attended the occasion.

The exhibition was organised with an aim to deliver information and cater to the queries of people, specially students, regarding electronic technology. A live demonstration of Data Links for Unmanned Air Vehicle attracted a large number of young students.

The Mobile Satcom Service (MSS) terminal useful for remote area applications, Ka-Band Satcom Terminal, Combat Net Radio System for vehicle, man pack, handled and wideband radio were at display. Various other technologies such as Satellite Image Processing and PCB layout design were exhibited on this occasion.

At least 400 persons visited the exhibition. Senior scientist SK Tyagi and his team managed the event.

Dehradun, May 11
The Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, observed National Technology Day today. Inaugurating the celebrations at FRI’s Shatbadhi Van Vigyan Centre, Dehradun, Director, FRI, Dr SS Negi said the institute had been opening up its city photo gallery and the museums for schoolchildren free of any charge on occasions like Technology Day, Science Day and others. He said the institute was committed in promoting interest towards forestry in the younger generation.

He said the turnout of schoolchildren on Technology Day and other science-related programmes hosted by the FRI had been increasing steadily which he said was a welcome sign. Dr Negi said the institute had also been contacting schools asking them to take maximum benefits from an institution like the FRI by ensuring participation of their children in the institute’s interactive programmes.

Eight hundred children, mostly from government schools such as Government Girls Inter College, Rajpur road, CNI Girls Inter College, Government Girls Inter College Kaulagarh and GGIC Inter College Lakhibagh, visited the one-of-its-kind photo gallery. The FRI officials, who manned each and every section inside the gallery, also apprised the visitors of the history and importance of each and every exhibit.

FRI’s Publicity and Liaison Officer Piar Chand, Head, Extension, Jaishree and several of the FRI scientists were present on the occasion. Five museums of the FRI at the main FRI building were also opened for general public from 9 am to 5 pm today.

Dehradun, May 11
To get political mileage and extra attention, smalltime party leaders today tried to join the BDS students of Swami Narayan Medical College who staged a dharna at the Gandhi Park here. These leaders did not even know why the students were on the dharna. However, the administration is showing interest in the early resolution of the issue.

The future of 150 students is at stake as the medical college earlier known as Swami Narayan Medical College and now renamed as ND Tiwari Medical College is believed to be running courses without affiliation. “In 2007-08 we were granted admission on the basis of government UPMT counselling. The college continued to conduct classes for the 2008-09 session when it had not got permission. We managed to sail through three years of course despite deficient faculty as the stress was more on theory, but now in the third academic session the problem has worsened as we need good faculty and laboratory for carrying out practicals,” said a student on the condition of anonymity.

Tomorrow, the students will hold a protest at former Chief Minister ND Tiwari’s residence.

Mussoorie, May 11
A one-day blood donation camp was held under the aegis of the National Social Welfare Scheme at Ghananand Inter College in which students from various schools participated enthusiastically. Students below 18 were sent back as they fell short of the blood donation age. The camp was conducted by doctors and staff from the Doon Hospital consisting of Dr Rawat and Dr Nautiyal.

The chief guest on the occasion Chief Minister’s Advisor Rajesh Naithani inaugurated the camp by donating one unit of blood for the motivation of the students. He said it was important to donate blood as the state was accident prone due to the terrain. Hence, every person should make a concerted effort to donate blood.

Twentynine students were eligible for donating blood of whom nine were from girl schools. Meena Rawat and Anshi said this was first instance and after initial jitters the fear was gone. They would do it again if needed, added Anshi. Twentynine units in total were collected on the occasion.

NSS programme officer RS Verma coordinated the proceedings.

Dehradun, May 11
The Rajaji National Park has lost one of its prized possessions, an ITBP-trained and WWF, India-sponsored German shepherd sniffer dog.

Meant to help the park in seizure and administration purposes, the German shepherd dog was provided to the Rajaji National Park early November last year by the WWF, India, a voluntary organisation working to check wildlife crime in the country.

Significantly, the dog had undergone six months’ training along with two of Uttarakhand Forest officials at the ITBP camp in Panchkula before their induction into the Park workforce.

The entire exercise had involved a huge financial burden that was met by both the WWF, India, and the state forest authorities.

The deceased dog had been housed at Lachhiwala Forest Chowkie in Dehradun under strict supervision of two forest personnel. But the dog died due to want of care with some attributing the death to dehydration in the canine.

But Rajaji forest officials assert that the postmortem report failed to find the exact cause of the dog’s death. “The postmortem report failed to give any clear indication behind the cause of the death and only hinted that the canine had shown some symptoms of parvo disease,” SS Raisiely told The Tribune.

He also ruled out that there was something lacking on the part of the park authorities towards care of the dog.

Now, after losing the dog, the Rajaji Park authorities have now officially adopted a German shepherd pup and already put him on training. The two trained forest officials too have adopted another German shepherd pup at their own initiative to compensate for the loss.

However, Rajaji forest officials admit that it will not be easy to replace the earlier ITBP-trained German shepherd that was a specialist in tracking down skins of various animals, including tigers and leopards, and detect other wildlife articles buried by poachers in dense forests.

Interestingly, acquiring a sniffer dog was part of Rajaji Park efforts towards strengthening of its anti-poaching works. The park apart from the ITBP-trained dog had also received two Gin Traps detectors. This detecting equipment helps locate traps used by poachers.

Death of the dog has put a question mark on Rajaji Park ability to take to the latest techniques and services, including canines for curbing poaching activities.

Dehradun, May 11
Jaswant Modern School faced a tough battle before pulling off a spirited challenge of Hope Town School (HGS) girls 12-11 on the second day of the District Sub-Junior (u-14) Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls at Welham Girls’ School, here today.

Anjali scored six points for the winning team and Shriya scored five points for HGS.

In another girls’ encounter St Joseph’s Academy defeated Unison World School (UGS) 10-7. Avantika top scored with eight points in the win and Lalima scored four points for the losing side.

While in boys matches, Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) beat The Aryan School (TAS) 15-12. Vivek scored six points for RIMC and Aman of TAS scored five points. Asian School posted a one-sided win over Colonel Brown Cambridge School (CBS) 22-2.

Lalmal of the winning team scored 12 points and Manasvi scored the all two points for CBS. Doon International School beat St Joseph Academy (SJA) 14-7.

Dehradun, May 11
Two veteran Dehradun footballers will get sports pension of the Union Ministry of Sports, Government of India. Shyam Thapa and Amar Bahadur, two veteran footballers from Dehradun were among the four footballers to figure in the list of 51 players.

The scheme of pension is applicable to sportspersons who are Indian citizens and have won gold, silver or bronze medals in the Olympic Games, World Cup, World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Para-Olympic Games and who have retired from active sports and are above 30 years of age. They are eligible for pension varying from Rs 10,000 per month to Rs 3,000 per month.

Pandurang R Kakade, PM Shiv Das, Amar Bahadur and Shyam Thapa were members of the Indian squad, which won football bronze in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok. The games were organised from December 9 to 20, 1970, and India beat Japan to claim the bronze medal. Dehradun’s Amar Bahadur scored the lone goal of the match.

The Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports has sanctioned pension worth Rs 4.65 crore during 2009-10 and April-May of the current financial year to 51 meritorious sportspersons.

Out of the 51 players, four will receive pension of Rs 8,000 per month, 10 of Rs 7,000 per month and 37 of Rs 6,000 per month. The pension sanctioned is for lifetime.

Under the Scheme of Pension to Meritorious Sportspersons, introduced in July 1994 with the objective of rewarding meritorious sportspersons for their outstanding achievements with lifetime assistance in the form of assured monthly pension. At present, 540 sportspersons are getting pension, which is being paid to them through the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Dehradun, May 11
Little Star got the better of ITM Dehradun by 20 runs in the ongoing Second Babu Farid Ahmed Memorial Cricket Tournament here today on OFD Ground.

The winning team set a target of 152 runs losing six wickets in 20 overs. Ankit (73) and Sagar (36) scored for Little Star to help it raise the fighting total. Sumit of ITM scalped three wickets.

In reply, ITM could score 136 runs in 20 overs losing eight wickets. Shashank (53*) and Amit (31) mainly scored for the team. For Little Star, Surya got three wickets, Sanjay got two and Nari took a wicket.

Earlier in the first match, Helex Cricket Club won by 19 runs over DAV Public School. Helex scored 126 runs for eight in 20 overs batting first, Shashank (32) being the top scorer for it.

Batting second, the DAV team was packed off for 107 runs. Anurag (20) top scored for the team. Vijay took three wickets and Ravi and Gurdeep got two wickets.

Dehradun, May 11
A fast knock by Punit Bisht (105 off 63) of Dena Bank, New Delhi, went in vain as the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Academy (UPCA) managed to win the match by three wickets to book quarterfinal berth at the 28th All-India Uttarakhand Gold Cup Cricket Tournament here on the Ranger’s College cricket ground here today.

Bisht was the lone fighter for the Dena Bank team that opted to bat first after winning the toss. He hit 15 boundaries and two sixes during his brilliant century. The other batsmen of the team couldn’t remain on the crease for a long and after starting off their individual innings well lost their wickets. Mobin Ahmad (38) and Bhupender Yadav (32) chipped for the side.

Dena Bank set a target of 234 runs in 29.4 overs. While for the UPCA, Bhuvneswar Kumar and Rohit Chaudhary bowled good and captured three wickets each.

Batting second, the UPCA achieved the target in 29 overs at the loss of seven wickets. After losing its opener Amit Singh on duck, another opener Akash Kumar (63 off 41) and Umang Sharma (90 off 69) stitched together a partnership of 96 runs to give the team give a solid start.

Bhuvneswar Kumar (38 off 21) also played a quick fire knock. Kapil Rana of Dena Bank got two wickets, Manu Kumar, Vikas Vij and Shakti Singh took a wicket each.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) also entered the quarterfinal posting 38 runs win over the Cricket Association Uttarakhand here at the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy (ACA).

Dehradun, May 11
The Uttarakhand Youth T20 Cricket Association is organising the Kanta Devi Raghav Memorial National Cricket Tournament from May 15 on four different grounds of Dehradun.

Six teams of Uttarakhand and 10 from other states, including Delhi, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab, are likely to participate in this tournament, said Javad Bhatt, general secretary of the association.

The winning team will fetch a cash prize of Rs 31,000 and the runners-up team will get Rs 21,000. On the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a cultural programme will be organised by the association to promote the culture of Uttarakhand.

Folk artistes of the state will perform during the tournament. The matches will be held on the OFD Ground, Survey Ground, Matawala Bagh and Bombay Bagh.