Pitthoragarh, May 31
All preparations have been completed by Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN), nodal agency, and the ITBP for this year’s Kailash Mansarovar Yatra that begins from June 1. “We have delivered ration quota to all trek route camps, deputed our staff there and identified 60 ponies and 250 porters to carry luggage of the pilgrims,” said BR Arya, yatra officer at the Dharchula base camp.

According to KMVN sources at Nainital, 49 pilgrims, including eight women, have been declared medically fit by doctors in New Delhi after the final medical check up of the first batch of pilgrims.“The Volvo bus and an Innova vehicle carrying the first batch of pilgrims will be flagged off by KMVN Chairman Surendra Singh Jeena At 7 am from New Delhi on June 1. These pilgrims will reach Kathgodam at 2 pm and leave for Almora where they will stay that night,” said Ashok Joshi, GM, Tourism, KMVN. He said the batch would reach the base camp at Dharchula on June 2 and after travelling 40 km from there by bus, the batch will start its 70-km-long trek from Mangti.

“The motor road up to Mangti and 70-km-long trek route from there up to 5,334-m high Lipulekh Pass from where they will enter into Tibet is in fine shape except some light landslides at Tintola and thick layer of snow near the pass, which will be cleared by the time the first batch reaches there,” said an ITBP officer.

“The ITBP, which takes on the yatra beyond Gunji camp, has not only deputed a team of three doctors to take second medical check up on the pilgrims when they reach this camp after three days’ tracking, but also has deployed a 45-men strong disaster and rescue team in Gala, Bundi and Lakhanpur areas which are considered sensitive from the disaster point of view,” said the ITBP officer.

The 644-km-long pilgrimage which includes 574-km motor journey form New Delhi passes through five trek route camps at Gala (2,018 m), Bundi (2740 m), Gunji (3,300 m), Kala Pani (3,370 m) and Nabhi Dhang Camps (3,370 m) before crossing the Lipulekh Pass (5,334 m). “Even in the highest point for these pilgrims is the Dolama Pass in Tibet which is 5,550-m high,” said DK Sharma, regional tourist officer of the KMVN.

“The communication facilities have also been upgraded and the nigam has installed five DSPT sets at all camps on the trek route which will make the communication for pilgrims cheap at Rs 5 per minute. This was Rs 35 per minute till last year,” said Rana Ashok Kumar, GM, Telecommunications, Almora district.

The KMVN has also improved the cuisine for the pilgrims this year. “We are providing Kumaoni cuisine at Kathgodam, Almora, Pitthoragarh and the Dharchula base camp and South Indian dishes at the Gunji base camp,” said Sharma.

Haridwar, May 31
Even as this year’s Char Dham pilgrimage has broken the number of pilgrim records in the first few weeks, thereby bringing smiles on the faces of transporters plying vehicles on the yatra route, passengers visiting hilly districts of the Garhwal region are facing a shortage of conveyance due to a less number of vehicles available on these routes.

The so-called lifelines of the Garhwal region, the Garhwal Motors Owners Union (GMOU) service, is also these days plying most of its buses on the yatra routes.

From Haridwar, which is the gateway to Garhwal districts from the plains, the GMOU buses ply almost to all major towns of Pauri, Srinagar, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Karanprayag, Ghansali, Mussoorie, Tharali, Chamba, etc. Residents of these areas heavily rely on this transport service for commuting. But, now the frequency of these buses has come down drastically.

Local commuters are also facing a similar problem. Such is the condition at both Haridwar and Rishikesh private bus stations that in the wee hours only buses are available to the hilly districts of the Garhwal region and that too jam-packed.

Hundreds of people are seen stranded at these bus stations and they either have to wait for hours or hire taxis at exorbitant rates.

Perturbed over the present situation, stranded passengers and people hailing from hill regions got together and protested the apathy of the state government and private transport services towards them.

“We are natural denizens of this state and yet no one caters to our woes. There are a few transport buses available on routes to hilly districts and no one is catering to local commuters. The government should immediately take action and ply additional state as well as regional transport services on these routes,” voiced JP Pandey of the Uttarakhand Kranti Manch, which is taking up the issue.

While GMOU officials say the yatra season is for five-six months and the rest of the time they ply buses on hilly routes only. To make up for the minimal profit and sometimes loss, they have to pitch in more buses on the tourism circuit. They also put the onus on private jeep-taxi unions that also are mostly plying vehicles on the yatra circuit.

Taxi union chief Sanjay Chopra blames it on the state government which, according to him, should have provided additional bus services to hilly districts to mitigate the woes of the local people.

Meanwhile, The Tribune found a family stranded at the Rishikul situated GMOU bus stand that had come from New Delhi and were to go to Chamoli.

“We reached around 10 am and now it’s exactly 12:30 am and only two buses were available for Karanprayag. But that too were jam-packed now and we are left only with the option to move to Rishikesh. But, as reaching Karanprayag takes at least nine hours, I have to see to that it doesn’t get dark then as I am with my family.

“Maybe if the same thing happens in Rishikesh I will have to stay there today and get the available bus as early as we can tomorrow morning,” said Vinay Dimri, a garment businessman at the main bazar, who was going to a hill district attend a family function with his children.

Dehradun May, 31
A long caravan of devotees riding motorcycles, travelling in buses and even marching on foot for the pilgrimage of Shri Hemkund Sahib Gurdwara, which is starting from tomorrow, is quite visible on roads these days. The Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) and gurdwaras en route have made their preparations to greet and extend facilities to the devotees.

The GMVN, which has its hands full with the preparations of the Char Dham pilgrimage, has prepared a package tour to cater to the devotees of Hemkund Sahib.

General Manager, GMVN, UK Kabarwal said the package tour would serve the combined religious and adventure purpose. The duration of this package tour, Rishikesh-Valley of Flowers-Lokpal-Badrinath-Rishikesh, is of seven days and seven nights. The devotees assembled at Bharat Bhumi Tourist Complex at Rishikesh and are picked up in a non-AC bus. The charges for an adult have been fixed 9,100, for child 8,770 and for a senior citizen 8,600. After taking a dip in the holy Kund and visiting Lokpal, tourists can proceed for sightseeing in Auli also where the facility of cable car on payment is available.

With regards to arrangement, he said: “The nigam has its rest houses in Badrinath, Joshimath and Ganghriya which is closer to Hemkund Sahib with 34-bedroom capacity. Online booking is already in full swing. The room charges for Ganghriya ranges from Rs 250 for dormitory to Rs 1,800 for two bed rooms. From Ganghriya, tourists can take two treks, one to Valley of Flowers and another to Hemkund Sahib.”

To suit the requirement of tourists, the GMVN also offers facilities to travel exclusively to Hemkund Sahib.

Apart from the government machinery, it is the gurudwaras where the devotees have been halting on the way and these have braced for the holy cause.

Darshan Singh, Manager, Gurudwara Shri Hemkund Sahib Management Trust, Rishikesh, said they had made all arrangement for the mass kitchen and overnight stay of the devotees. It was on May 29, the first big group of 250 devotees from Delhi halted at the gurdwara before leaving for Hemkund Sahib. Besides, four other gurdwaras, en route Srinagar, Joshimath, Gobind Ghat and Gobind Dham too have begun receiving devotees. He urged the government to make all necessary arrangements for the devotees for transport, accommodation and medical aid.

People coming from Punjab too have been halting their journey at the Prem Nagar gurdwara at Dehradun for ages. On Monday, a group of 60 devotees who came from Amritsar on foot relished the food at a mass kitchen before leaving in the evening to resume their on-foot pilgrimage. Sardar Amrinder Singh, a devotee, said: “It is a one-month journey which we have taken on to visit Shri Hemkund Sahib on foot. A truck loaded with ration, tent, medical aid follows us.” The groups were send-off amid beats of dhol and bands.

President of the Gurdwara Damdama Sahib (Chakrata) and Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Manmohan Singh said five groups of devotees conducting the pilgrimage on foot from Amritsar, Patiala, Batala, Sangrur had been served food and extended overnight stay till now in both gurdwaras in the city. The pilgrimage season will continue till October.

Dehradun, May 31
Students of Uttarakhand have again proved their mettle in the hard-hitting All-India Engineers Entrance Exams (AIEEE), whose result was declared yesterday. A great bunch of regular students from Dutt and Verma Coaching Classes have cleared the examination which is just a step behind their final destination i.e. the best engineering college of their own choice.

Pulkit Mittal of Dutt and Mittal Coaching Classes has secured first rank in AIEEE in the general class and topped in Dehradun by securing 283 rank in the IIT. Other students of the same institute have also done exceptionally well in the state.

Ishan Jain has secured seventh rank, Akhilesh secured 18th rank and the others who made the state proud are Amber Mittal (rank 21), Mohnish Joshi (rank 28), Manan Bhatia (rank 34), Harshit Joshi (rank 35), Shubham Sandeep (rank 54), Anubha Gupta (rank 91, Shivani Pant rank 103, Deepak Singh (rank 6) in OBC category, Harpreet (rank 142), Sanchit Bhatnagar (rank 145) and 300 students have also secured positions in the top 2000 rank.

Haridwar, May 31
Keeping up with tradition and modernity, mixing of the Gurukul methodology education with English-medium modern education pattern, the Gayatri-Shantikunj family for the first time introduced the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) curriculum in its Gayatri Vidyapeeth High School and got a commendable 100 pc passing result.

This cent per cent result once again certified the glorious tradition of imbibing of morality and culture-based education system professed by Shantikunj. In the maiden batch of 2009-10 at the Higher Secondary School situated at Shantikunj, of the 15 appearing students, four secured the coveted A-1 grade, while others secured a level above 7 CGPA.

The highest score was obtained by Vipin Shauri with a 9.4 grade topping the batch, followed by Satyendra Kumar 9.2, Gautam Anghore 9.2, Prachi Singh 9.2, Madhvi Sahu 8.8, Rishi Kamal Mishra 7.8, Ram Prakash Sahi 7.6 and Kumari Smita 7.2 CGPA by.

“I had full faith in the Gayatri family form of education and despite the first-time introduction of the CBSE pattern, the students fared better and my son attributes his 9.4 CGPA to the Vidyapeeth environment and staff,” said Arun Kumar Shauri, father of topper Vipin.

Lauding the efforts of students, Shantikunj head Dr Pranav Pandya said once again the Gayatri family had proved that mingling of tradition with fine ingredients of modernity produced effective results with the institution’s CBSE pattern result reinstating the fact.

The whole batch was felicitated by the Gayatri parivar with Shail Jiji wishing prospective future for students. Coordinator Shantikunj Gaurishankar Sharma gave memorabilia signs to the students in the presence of all teaching and non-teaching staff members.

Nainital, May 31
District Magistrate (DM) Shailesh Bagauli has ordered a fresh proposal to be submitted for the construction of a road linking Fatehpur to Patwadangar in the Devidhura area. The 32-km road is to be built under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and it has hit a roadblock on account of delay in transfer of land coming under the forest area.

Bagauli has ordered that instead of the earlier proposal where the width of the road was kept at 9 metre, the width in the new proposal be kept at 7 metre so that the proposal gets cleared at the earliest and work be executed in time. He ordered that the fresh proposal be submitted to the Nodal Officer within 15 days.

During a visit to Devidhura area on Saturday, Bagauli was apprised of the problem of low voltage in the area by representatives of several villages. He has asked the officials of the Power Department to look in to the matter and put things right at the earliest.

Referring to the problem of water scarcity in the area, Bagauli has asked for proposals from gram sabhas under the Ekal Payjal Yojana so that work can be started at the earliest.

He ordered that in areas where water can be provided under the Sector Wide Approach (SWAP), surveys be conducted by officials of Jal Nigam, Swajal and Jal Sansthan within 15 days and reports be submitted for further action.

Bagauli also promised that the possibility of installing a tube well in Devidhura would also be looked into.

Responding to a public complaint regarding the post of Principal lying vacant at the local inter-college, he ordered that a Principal be appointed there at the earliest.

Dehradun, May 31
Setting up the tone for nationwide public consultations on United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s important legislation, the Forest Rights Act, a joint committee instituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs yesterday held its first public consultations in the forest predominant state of Uttarakhand.

A lack of sensitisation, misinformation and a resistance on the part of the forest authorities emerged as major stumbling blocks towards the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Uttarakhand. The speakers blamed Uttarakhand Forest officials of doing little to ensure implementation of the Act in the state with many accusing forest officials of usurping their forest rights on the pretext of putting some of the forest dwelling communities outside the purview of the Act.

A member of the Tongia community in the Rajaji National Park, Munni Lal, argued that while those implementing the Forest Rights Act seek 75 years of residency records from them to consider their claims, the Tongia community, by their nature of work, remained over a piece of land for not more than five years and thus giving residential proof was altogether impossible for them. Few know that Tongia are the people who used to be hired by the British for plantation in forest areas. During the passage of time, they settled in forest areas. However, the system was discontinued after 1986.

Echoing similar sentiments, Noor Alam, a Van Gujjar, airing his grievance accused the Uttarakhand forest authorities of hardly making an initiative to protect their forest rights. He said the Van Gujjars’ forest rights were the least being recognised by Rajaji Park officials, which they later argued was a critical habitat.

Uttarakhand Van Panchayat Sangharsh Morcha leader Tarun Joshi said restoring forest rights of forest-dependent communities apart from tribesmen was also a matter of debate in Uttarakhand hills where nearly 85 per cent of land had forest cover. He said many of those living in fringe forest areas were totally dependent on forests for their livelihood. Boksha Prem Singh highlighted the plight of members of the Boksha, a tribal community, that shifted after coming up of Haripura Dam in Udham Singh Nagar, but was yet to get ownership rights over land where they were rehabilitated.

From NGO’s side Praveen Kaushal from Sophia, an organisation working for the betterment of Rajaji Van Gujjars, referred to the problems faced by nomadic tribes like Van Gujjars towards submitting their claims under the Forest Rights Act. He said many Van Gujjars from Uttar Pradesh, who move to higher reaches of the Gangotri National Park every summers, face a hostile nature of the Uttarakhand forest authorities, who identify them as outsiders.

Committee member Ashish Kothari said the public consultations had taken up the issues linked to forest dewellers in Uttarakhand and the adjoining western Uttar Pradesh. He said while the committee had held field visits in several states, the Dehradun public consultation had been the first such programme in the country.

On a three-day visit to Uttarakhand, the committee members will also visit the Rajaji National Park that has a sizeable number of Van Gujjars. It will also hold consultations with Uttarakhand Chief Secretary and other officials of the Forest and Social Welfare Ministry to take stock of progress made by Uttarakhand for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

Haridwar, May 31
She led various peshwayis of Nirmal Akhada and was there in various religious activities of the ashram, but five months after the commencement of the Kumbh, female elephant Pawan Kali, is in custody of the Forest Department and a case has been registered under the Wildlife Act against the akhada authorities.

The mahout of the elephant failed to produce legal documents and even the akhada managers failed to provide any satisfactory answer as well as documents, necessary to keep wild animals.

As per akhada manager Pawan Kali was purchased way back in 1974 at the Jaunpur fair in Bihar. Since then the elephant has been a part of the ashram property.

Surprisingly, at the time of the Kumbh fair neither the authorities nor the forest guards bother to check the required documents of the elephant.

Forest Ranger Man Singh said the akhada manager failed to provide necessary documents regarding the elephant possession and there was no application for a possession certificate after the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act came into existence in 2002-03.

As in the 2002-03 Amendment Act it is clearly specified that every person having at the commencement of this Act the control, custody or possession of any animal specified in given schedules, has to be declared to the Chief Wildlife Warden or the authorised officer the number and description of the animal under his control, custody or possession and the place where such animal or article is kept, within 30 days.

It has been eight years since the Act came into existence, and Pawan Kali, that used to be the akhada property, in the absence of any possession documents is termed as illegal detainment and thus will be now be decided by the Forest Department where to put up the elephant.

Meanwhile, a case has also been registered against the akhada management for violating the Wildlife Protection Act. Wildlife lovers have expressed happiness over the step taken by the Forest Department pointing it as a deterrent for others.

“This is a right action though it came a bit late, still everyone should follow the rule of the law and wild animals are a protected property. Our society needs to be more sensitive towards animals and it is up to the administration too to see that implication of wild animal laws are strictly implemented too,” said wildlife expert Dr Ritesh Joshi.

Dehradun, May 31
Regional office of the State Bank of Patiala (SBP) has come up at the Subhash Road here today. Inaugurating the office, CMD Ashok Nair said the new regional office would have 33 branches, both at Uttarakhand and UP, under its jurisdiction.

He also held that a total of 10 new branches would be opened in rural and semi-urban areas of Uttarakhand as part of the bank’s commitment to serve the under-developed sectors.

Nair also said its one of few banks in the country that had cent per cent branches connected to the core banking system. Facilities like mobile banking, Internet banking, ATM and RTGS were available with all branches of the bank.

Delhi zone in charge SK Goyal and Assistant General Manager, Dehradun, Anil Garg were present on the occasion.

Dehradun, May 31
Brave Cricket Academy (BCA), Delhi, won the All-India DSL Aloe Vera Trophy by beating NCC Sonipat by four wickets here today on Rangers College cricket ground.

In this T20 encounter, NCC decided to bat first after it won the toss. The team set a target of 151 at the loss of nine wickets. Skipper Pradeep Malik (32 off 29) and Anil Balyan (39 off 31) mainly scored for the side.

While rest of the batsmen failed to perform in front of the BCA bowlers. Sandeep Kumar bowled economically and also proved successful. He got two wickets in four overs for 19 runs.

Mohd Adil, Sunil Maurya, Ashutosh Singh and Sanjeev Gupta pocketed a wicket each to restrict batsmen of the NCC team.

While openers of the BCA gave a solid start to their team to ensure the win of the side while chasing the target. Both Saurabh Sharma (43 off 33) and Alok Verma (33 off 27) started off well, but lost the chance of scoring individual half-centuries.

This was NCC’s Pradeep who bowled with right line and length and sent both the openers back to the pavilion. Sunil Maurya also contributed with 35 runs in the later part of the match for the BCA. Jitesh Saroha and Nukul Nain took two and one wicket respectively.

Meanwhile, Harsh Singh (BCA Delhi) and Pradeep Malik (NCC Sonipat) were declared as best bowler and best batsman of the tournament, respectively. Nukul Nain (NCC Sonipat) emerged as the best all-rounder of the tournament.

Dehradun, May 31
Four cadets from Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) went to take part in the 2nd Uttarakhand State Juniors and Sub-Juniors Swimming Championship held at Haldwani on May 30.

There were two groups in the competition- Group 1, including the swimmers born in the years 1993, 1994, 1995 and Group 2, including swimmers born in the years 1996 and 1997.

A participant could only participate in three events. RIMC bagged a haul of nine gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal.

The overall results of the competition were as follows:- Cadet Aditya Udupa wins gold at the 100m backstroke and cadet Karan Sohi gets gold at the 100m breaststroke.

Mussoorie, May 31
Swimmers from the Wynberg-Allen School, Mussoorie, proved their mettle in the recently concluded second state-level junior and sub-junior swimming championship held at Haldwani.

Swimmers from various districts of the state namely Nainital, Dehradun, Haridwar, Almora, Udhamsingh Nagar took part in the various events conducted at the event.

According to team manager Anil Chaudhary accompanying the swimmers from Dehradun said Christine Wilson of Wynberg-Allen School secured the first position the 50m butterfly stroke and second positions in the 50m breaststroke, in 50m freestyle events. Kartikeya Choudhary and Craig Tindale of the same school secured the second and third positions in the 50m breaststroke and 100m freestyle stroke events, respectively.

Twenty new records were created in this meet. According to the secretary of the association, Seema Mehrotra the participants for the upcoming nationals to be held in Bangalore will be selected on the basis of the performance in this meet. The other winners in different categories were as following: In Group-I, Aditya Udupa of Dehradun and Akansha Joshi of Nainital got the individual championships for the boys and the girls, respectively.

In Group-II, Sourabh Throve of Dehradun and Aastha Joshi of Haldwani got the individual championships for the boys and the girls respectively. In Group-III, Pranshul Pant and Kiran Thapola of Nainital got the individual championships for the boys and the girls respectively.

In Group-IV, Suraj Singh Dapola and Mansi Dapola of Nainital got the individual championships for the boys and the girls respectively. Certificates and mementos were awarded to all individual champions and all position holders at end of the meet by Umesh Khatri, the additional director sports.

Speaking on the occasion Khatri assured all swimmers and officials his full support and co-operation.

In the end Seema Mehrotra congratulated all the winners and thanked the other guests and participants for showing such enthusiasm for the meet.

Dehradun, May 31
After much troubled times in the district football, both the old District Football Association (DFA) and the present DFA are likely to join hands to organise the football league.

The old DFA had declared April 1 as the starting date for the league, while the present DFA had announced that it would hold league from April 2.

Both associations had also claimed that they had a number strength of about 20 football clubs each with them.

Sources told The Tribune, “The two associations have loyal seven to eight big clubs with them while the small clubs are in dilemma which association to join and considering the future scope has registered with both the associations”.

“The shifting of big football clubs with the old DFA might have made the present DFA to come on to negotiation grounds,” the source added.

Moshin Khan, media coordinator in the old DFA, said, “There is a plan to organise the league together considering the present scenario. Three members each from both associations will be sent who will make an ad-hoc committee to organise the league. We have sent names of three members of ours and the decision is expected to be made in the meeting to be held tonight”.

Khan also said if it happens then there will be no league matches from April 1 and fresh dates will be announced.

While Devender Bisht, secretary of the present DFA, said, “I have no idea about this plan. Our president must be knowing it, we are waiting for a meeting with him tonight to make decision.”

A final meeting in this regard was undergoing till the filing of this report.