Dehradun, May 25
Heat generated by the passage of the Women’s Bill in the Upper House of Parliament appears to have breathed a new life into the issue of women’s policy of Uttarakhand, the draft of which has been lying in the cold storage for the past three year. Now, with big brother Uttar Pradesh already framing and implementing the women’s policy, women activists in Uttarakhand too have started putting pressure on the government to dust the draft policy so that it is passed in the Uttarakhand Assembly.

Though the exercise for the framing of the policy was started at the fag end of the Congress-led Tiwari government’s rule in the state, it could not be finalised then. Now, once again women’s organisations are putting pressure on the government to start the exercise for holding discussions on the policy. But, will the policy have steps towards imposing prohibitions for which women’s groups have launched successful movements in the past, remains to be seen.

Women’s organisations say a women-specific policy will ensure that various aspects of the convention on elimination of discrimination against women, to which India is a signatory, are followed: “A policy framework helps in charting a path for the implementation of provisions that ensure women have equal opportunities in all spheres and financial allocations are made for their welfare. Strict enforcement of all relevant legal provisions and a speedy redressal of grievances will be ensured, with a special focus on violence and gender-related atrocities against women. Measures to prevent and punish sexual harassment at the place of work, protection for women workers in the organised/unorganised sectors will have to be included in the policy,” said Ramindri Mandarwal, State Protection Officer.

The policy draft did not cover aspects of reducing discrimination against women. In fact, in the policy the women will like to see more of their concerns regarding jal, jungle and zamin.

“Once the policy is framed the government will have to tell us where it is falling short on performance and steps to be taken to ensure equal opportunities for women,” said Archana Pandey, State Coordinator (Uttar Pradesh) of the National Alliance of Women (NAW), which will also launch a march in the state eliciting views from women.

It was the pressure exerted by women organisations that ensured appointment of District Protection Officers in a majority of districts (but for two) to man the District Protection Cells and also appoint service providers who will also be appointed at the cell and their task will be to provide legal and psychological support to women victims of domestic violence.

For this financial year, the government too has allocated about 50 per cent of the budget towards women and their welfare. A total allocation of Rs 1,400 crore as gender budget has been made this year. However, women’s groups are not satisfied with the allocation alone and it is here that a policy would come handy. “A policy will strengthen our hands, not only will we be able to ask for more budgetary allocation but also monitor the performance. We have been demanding that the government gives us clear indication how the allocations being made under the gender budget are being spent,” said Namita, a representative of NAW (Uttarakhand).

The gender budgeting usually is made for the Education Department, Women and Child Welfare Department and Social Welfare Department to support the government schemes. As such there has not been any auditing of the allocation by non-government organisations.

Dehradun, May 25
A meeting of various organisations headed by the All-India Democratic Women’s Association was held at the YWCA office to discuss the issue of 33 per cent reservation to women in the Vidhan Sabhas and Parliament.

They discussed the programme of social organisation “Anhad”, which is reaching Dehradun on June 4, after which it will leave for Meerut the next day. A committee was constituted to make the programme successful. Gyan and Anis, both members of the YWCA, Rop Negi of the Women’s Federation, Shashikala Puri of the Menaka Jagriti Smiti, Indu Naudiyal and Chanda Mamgai of the Janwadi Mahila Committee are the members of this committee.

A representative group of the Janwadi Mahila Committee also met the District Magistrate (DM) and gave him a memorandum to be forwarded to the Chief Minister enlisting 11 demands of the committee and discussed issues such as violence against women, honour to the statehood fighters, food protection and garbage disposal.

Some of their main demands were distribution of basic 14 items in ration to all, price reduction of food items, cooking oil and diesel/patrol, gas and kerosene and to make health services affordable in the state.

They also demanded the enforcement of all women-related laws, constitution of committees to look into the matter of gender bias at all work places, hostels for working women, timely pension to widows, simplification of the process to get caste certificates and construction of new Park Road Gandhi Gram.

Dehradun, May 25
In order to solicit opinion from women hailing of the state about what provisions of the state women’s policy, the National Alliance for Women (NAW) and the Sakhi Kender (Kanpur) will launch an awareness drive and march shortly.

Members of NAW said to make the policy truly representative of the needs of the women of Uttarakhand from cross-sections of society, the march would motivate women on the merits of a policy and also put pressure on the government to come with a Bill and pass it in the Uttarakhand Assembly.

“Most of the states have framed a separate policy and the only states lagging behind are the states of Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand,” said Subhasheni, State Coordinator NAW, (UP).

“During the march, we will be meeting the poorest of the poor women and getting to know their views which would then be conveyed to the government. We are just facilitators in the entire process and are only extending support to our sisters here,” stressed Subhasheni.

Nainital, May 25
Five persons were killed in incidents of drowning in the Kumaon region yesterday. Incidentally, all five deceased had come to participate in marriage celebrations.

In the first instance, two cousins were drowned in the Kosi river near Ramnagar. The deceased have been identified as 32-year-old Mahesh Maulekhi of Usmanpur and Munna Maulekhi of Sangam Vihar in Delhi. They had participated in marriage celebrations at the house of Urvadutt Maulekhi of the Pampapuri locality two days back and had gone to the Kosi to beat the heat.

In the second instance, two persons who were a part of a marriage party that had gone to Meltajol village near Danya in Almora district died when they had gone to take a bath in the Panar river where they got trapped in a whirlpool. The deceased have been identified as 21-year-old Dinesh and 15-year-old Lalit of Pokhri village.

Yet another resident of Delhi who had come to participate in a marriage celebration at Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district got drowned in the Sharda canal. The deceased identified as 18-year-old Manoj was found trapped under the siphon of the canal. 

Dehradun, May 25
With drowning incidents at tourist places witnessing a rise, the Dehradun district police has identified three vulnerable water tourist spots where more cops will be deployed.

Sahstradhara, Lachhiwala and Guchupani are the three water tourist spots identified by the Dehradun police. More force will be deployed at these places and checks will also be made on the miscreants creating ruckus there.

Dehradun Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abhinav Kumar said: “The three tourist spots- Sahastradhara, Lachh iwala and Guchupani have been identified where the need of force has been felt. The number of police personnel will be increased on these places to help the tourists”.

The SSP also said the police would keep a tab on the people having liquor in public and creating nuisance there. “If somebody is drinking in his car then of course we cannot object to that but if anyone who is having liquor in the open at these tourists spots we will initiate action against him.”

A few weeks ago a drowning incident was reported from Guchupani. Two persons had gone to the place and after getting drunk there one of them got drowned.

Mussoorie, May 25
A seminar was held at the Tilak Memorial Library to discuss the effect of the electronic media on children under the aegis of children’s journal “Bal Prehri” today.

Principal, Mussoorie Public School, Mukesh Lal was of the view that the issue was debatable and had negative and positive sides while relating it with child’s development. He said some organisations had expressed concerns about the impact of the electronic media on young children; others had touted the educational benefits of certain media products.

He was of the view that electronic media had emerged as a facilitator of education and this could be seen in distant learning. Certain IB schools had made laptops compulsory and it had helped students, but on the other hand children were losing their credibility in reading and writing.

Mukesh said developmental science suggested that children might be most vulnerable between birth and school age to certain negative effects of media use such as obesity, aggression, fear and sleep disturbances which had to be addressed on priority basis.

He further said the meaning of education was to inculcate the habit of reading, writing and after comprehending it expressing these freely, which was being stalled due to the advent of the electronic media. The internet had provided an easy way out for students to look for answers and that investigative feeling was waning among children.

Mukesh also said, “We have to be very careful on deciding the limit of the electronic media in our education system. The traditional education system enthused and inculcated in children the need to read and write and later express freely with independent thought process which was decreasing in this electronic age”.

Other speakers Dr Haridutt Bhatt Shalesh, Prof RC Tripathi and Pawan Gupta, RS Mishra and Sameer Shukla also felt that the moral values should be a prominent feature in education and emphasis should be laid on increasing the child’s creativity.

The speakers also cited examples from recent studies in America which tracked a group of children across time. The researchers found that exposure to television at a very young age was associated with attention problems later on. The children in the study who spent more daily hours viewing television at ages one and three years had higher rate of attention problems at age seven years.

Uday Karola, Editor of ‘Bal Prehri’, said it was due to these reasons they felt a need for a child journal and ‘Bal Prehri’ had succeeded in rekindling the adventure spirit among the children. He also said the magazine emphasised on promoting creativity and independent thought process among children through the articles in it.

SIDH Director Pawan Gupta also said a three-day convocation would be organised on this issue at Kempty on June 19, 20 and 21 and would be attended by literary personalities around the country.

The seminar was presided over by RS Mishra who in conclusion said good children’s literature was not available in the market which could attract them away from the electronic media. 

Dehradun, May 25
Students of the MBBS Department of Swami Narayan Medical College, which is now known as ND Tiwari Medical College, protested at the Gandhi Park here today. The protest has been going on for the past 11 days regarding the declaration of the results of MBBS first-year students. Students in large numbers carried banners accusing the administration for not fulfilling their demands.

However, out of the protesting members, two students had a meeting with Uma Kant Panwar, Secretary, Health, at the Secretariat, but hadn’t received any positive response from the administration.

According to the protestors, Panwar said their demand had been forwarded to the Chief Minister and had asked for more time by them till something substantial occurred.

Shedding light on this issue, Himanshu, student of the institute, said, “The institute is affiliated with HNB Garhwal University, but has not been recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) due to which our results are being hampered. Now we are worried as we are idle”.

“Our Chairman is not responding to our calls and nothing significant has been received from his end. Although the pradhan of te Akhil Bhartuya Vidhyalay Parishad (ABVP) is supporting us,” he asserted. 

Nainital, May 25
The prizes for the painting exhibition for schoolchildren organised at the Raj Bhawan here were distributed today by Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva. The winners were handed over a certificate and a memento for their prize-winning creations.

In the junior category, which had participants from Class V to Class VIII the first prize was bagged by Aastha Singh of Sherwood College, while Amarjit Singh of Parvati Prema Jagati School and Bhanupratap Singh of Birla Vidya Mandir bagged the second and third prizes.

In the senior category, in which students from Class IX to Class XII participated, the first prize was bagged by Neha Arya of Ash Dale School. Adarsh Raj Singh of Birla Vidya Mandir and Geetanjali Arya of St Mary’s Convent bagged the second and third prizes.

In her address, Alva appreciated the spirit of all participants and said the children had given very good expression to their feelings. She said the Raj Bhawan planned to make this competition an annual event and in future well-known artistes would be called to

organise art camps so that the hidden talent of the children could come to the fore. She said worksops would be held for children.

Alva also disclosed that plans were afoot to open the Raj Bhawan for visit by schoolchildren on two to three days a week so that they got to know this historical and beautiful creation.

Dehradun, May 25
To participate in the national convention of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), tomorrow at Col Brown School, Dalanwala, the local wing of the council warmly welcomed Prof Milind Marathe, national president, and Vishnudatt Sharma, general secretary, in the capital here today.

To welcome the national workers of the council, local AVBP members took out a procession from the railway station to the Prince Chowk, Darshanlal Chowk, Survey Chowk and finally culminated at the meeting venue.

While addressing the gathering, Vishnudatt Sharma said, “The ABVP is proud to be the world’s largest student association and organising a national convention in the capital will be of great significance where issues regarding the national importance will be discussed”. 

Dehradun, May 25
Uttarakhand is all set to conduct its elephant census. The census exercise this year is scheduled to take place from June 1 to 3. Conducted after a gap of two years, the census assumes much of significance, as parts of Uttarakhand hold much reputation of keeping a rich elephant habitat.

Some of the key areas to be enumerated for pachyderms include the Rajaji National Park and the Jim National Corbett Park apart from several of elephant-rich forest divisions like Haridwar, Haldwani and Ramnagar.

The last elephant census that took place in Uttarakhand was in 2007. It had then revealed alarming results registering a drop in the big animal population compared to the 2005 count. The 2007 elephant census population has put the pachyderm population in the state to 1,364, while as many as 1,510 elephants were counted in the 2005 census.

Those engaged in pachyderm studies are looking forward to the present census with much interest. They fear that elephant causalities have continued unabated in the past two years and the elephant population could further go down as the factors behind the deaths of elephants have only strengthened at the end of the day. They admit that fragmentation of forests have led to the destruction of elephant habitat. Leave apart natural deaths, the deaths of elephants in poaching and accidents have been the big challenge for the wildlife authorities.

It is not just elephant poaching but also cases of elephant attacks on villagers in the close proximity of forest areas that has brought elephant in direct confrontation with elephants. Frequent incursions of pachyderms in the villages have led to increasing attacks on elephants. There have been cases of deaths of elephants while coming in contact with electricity wires illegally put up by villagers. However, the forest authorities from time to time have been initiating measures for safeguarding the elephant.

“Fragmentation of forests and rising obstruction on corridors have spelt doom for elephants,” points out Birendra Singh, an honorary Wildlife Warden, Corbett Tiger Reserve, and member of the National Board for Wild Life. He said while elephant casualties in elephant-predominant areas in Uttarakhand have been on the rise and the problem needs to be addressed to with promptness.

Dr AK Singh from the Wildlife Trust of India, who is credited with introducing highly successful train-hit mitigation project in the Rajaji National Park to address the problem of elephant deaths due to train hits, asserts securing elephant corridors is the most important task for the cause of elephant conservation. He said while elephant census exercise was very much needed, one must not just stick to figures as elephant that keeps a long distance movement is tough to be counted on a particular date and that too with a limited territory.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand Forest authorities have already started preparations for the count. Training of forest personnel has also begun. 

Dehradun, May 25
Nitin Saini’s lone goal effort guided the Doon Star enter quarterfinals beating Sunderwala Boys 1-0 in a knockout match of the Narendra Singh Kharola Memorial Football Tournament at Ambedkar Stadium on Kaulgarh Road, ONGC.

Both teams played a goalless first half after a fierce battle. The Doon Star achieved success in the 55th minute through Nitin Saini.

Sunderwala Boys gave a tough competition to its rival, but it wasn’t their day as they failed to score even a single goal.

In another knock out match, the Doon Valley defeated XI Star 1-0 to enter the quarterfinals.

This was Mukesh (25th minute) who stole the show netting a lone goal of the game.

The knockout matches are over and eight teams have been spotted for the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals will start from tomorrow.

Dehradun, May 25
As many as 50 u-16 players of Dehradun are improving their skills under the guidance of able coaches at a practice camp here on St Joseph College Ground.

The camp started on May 21 and will conclude on May 30.

Former Ranji trophy player and the BCCI level coach Kamal Kant Kanojia, Piyush Pandey, VS Gujral, Ashok Ghildiyal and Manish Gurung are coaching during the camp.

The camp is being organised by Divya Nautiyal, secerarty of the Uttarakhand Cricket Association.

The camp is being organised to tap the local talent by grooming them here. 

Dehradun, May 25
The u-16 Uttarakhand Basketball teams (girls and boys) have been selected to participate in the 27th Youth National Basketball Championship to be held at Trichuy in Tamil Naidu from June 1 to 8.

The teams had earlier attended a 15-day long arduous practice camp in Dehradun. The teams will leave for the championship on May 27.

The boys’ team will be led by Arpit Bachan while Sunaina Das will be the captain of the girls’ squad.

About 40 to 45 teams in girls and boys section from all over the country are expected to participate in this championship.

The Dehradun teams look confident for the championship as both the boys and girls teams went through

tough parctice camps.

Dehradun, May 25
The Uttarakhand Police registered a facile six-wicket win over C and W Lucknow in a friendly match, which was organised by the Uttarakhand Cricket Association here today on Rangers College Cricket Ground.

The losing side batted first after winning the toss. But its batsmen failed to perform. Rohtash Ahuja (17) and M Tariq (14) were the top scorers for the team. The team set a target of 99 in 18.2 overs before losing all its wickets.

The bowlers of Uttarkhand Police gave combined effort to restrict its rival team batsmen. Harsh, Nitin, Dhanraj and Sanjay took two wickets each.

Batting second, the Uttarakhand Police achieved its target at the loss of four wickets in 12.3 overs only. Dhanrat (31), Navnish (19) and Jakir Khan (17) were the principal scorers. For C and W, Mohd Arshad got two wickets. Ravi and Rohtash pocketed a wicket each.

Meanwhile, tomorrow UCA President XI will meet UCA Secretary XI in a women’s cricket friendly match.