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BJP bigwigs to push for industrial package extension
Sparsh Ganga gets dream touch
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In politics for good, says Hema Malini
Learn to live healthy life, says expert
Doon’s soccer SMS service is one year old
Promotional soccer tourney begins today
Haryana lead with seven gold in wrestling
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BJP bigwigs to push for industrial package extension
Dehradun, June 27 Talking to mediapersons here today, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, while replying to a query, said, “As far as the book is concerned, the party treats it as an individual viewpoint. The party is clear on its stand on Sardar Patel and Jinnah. The BJP holds Jinnah responsible for the partition of the country based on his two-nation theory. It is appreciative and has reverence for Patel for his efforts to integrate about 600 princely states into India”. To a subsequent question on the matter, she said party President Nitin Gadkari had said the BJP wanted to forget the past. “When past is being forgotten, it is not discussed threadbare,” said Sushma, who was here to participate in the celebrations held to mark the first anniversary of Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank’s term in office. When asked about the return of other leaders like Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh, she said, “The return of Uma Bharati has not been discussed by the Parliamentary Board as yet, and as for Kalyan Singh, he has gone out after having returned”. Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre of having a partisan approach towards the states not ruled by the Congress, Sushma said the BJP’s top leadership would be meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, along with the Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for extension of the industrial package in these states. “Gadkari, LK Advani and me will be meeting the Prime Minister with the two Chief Ministers. We have sought time from him and will ask him to stop the injustice being done to these two states,” she said. Sushma claimed that the withdrawal of the package in the middle is an injustice as the whole infrastructure that has come up is on account of the duration of the package. The industrialists set up their units keeping in mind that they would get certain benefits till the point the package had been announced. When pointed that it was on account of the stance adopted by Chief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal who is a BJP ally, along with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s that the Centre has reduced the period of the package, Sushma said, “We have told these states not to
oppose it”. The BJP leader also announced that her party would take up the issue of the recent price rise in petroleum products along with the Bhopal gas tragedy vociferously during the next session of
Parliament.
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Sparsh Ganga gets dream touch
Dehradun, June 27 “It has reverential connotations with most of us referring to it as ‘Ma Ganga’, when people in the western world view their rivers purely as mediums of undertaking leisure sports, we in India have devised bath days that are said to be auspicious,” she said. Sushma was speaking at a Sparsh Ganga programme organised by the Uttarakhand government to coincide with Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s successful completion of one year in tenure. Swaraj lauded the effort of the government for starting the drive in the state and said efforts should also be made to keep the tributaries of the river free of filth
and garbage. Nominating Hema Malini as the brand ambassador of the programme, Sushma said she would take the programme forward. On the other hand Hema Malini, while accepting the responsibility, said she always wanted to work in Uttarakhand and like the mythical King Bhagirath who is credited for bringing the Ganga on the earth. A similar effort would be required to cleanse it. The Chief Minister said since the start of the campaign in March this year from Muni-ki-Reti, volunteers have managed to clean the river and much more was required. “Not only are we committed to keeping our rivers pollution free but are also involved in giving shape to Vision 2020. The progress that the BJP government has made in the past three years is substantial and much more than what the previous Congress government could achieve in the past five years,” he said. On the occasion a book dedicated to the Sparsh Ganga campaign prepared by Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna University (HNB), Srinagar, and a CD were also released.
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In politics for good, says Hema Malini
Dehradun, June 27 “Right now I can say I am in politics for good. It has given me a wider framework to further social causes that I cherish. Now, I will be associated with the Sparsh Ganga project in Uttarakhand, the seat of Hindu thought and spirituality. It is an idea that the Uttarakhand Chief Minister had discussed with me on and off and it has materialised only now. I willingly accepted the responsibility. Though several things have to be sorted out, for now I am quite happy to lend support to the cause of making the Ganga pollution free,”
emphasised the legendary actor while talking to The Tribune today. Not unduly critical about the sound and fury that MPs make in Parliament, Hema Malini said she had spent a fruitful innings though many would say she hardly raised any questions during question hour. “It was a learning experience for me to watch the MPs debate on several issues. The discussions during the tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill were quite fruitful,” said Hema Malini, who is also vice-president of the BJP national executive. Though films continue to interest her, it is a lack of meaty roles that has kept her out of action for a while now. “To tell you the truth, I have not been offered any interesting roles. The urge of applying grease paint is still strong but where are the scripts. For that matter our films seem to be far removed from the issues that really interest the common man. The mess that we have made with our rivers is before us, but very few directors are willing to take it on the silver screen. No wonder the artiste in me has to look for other avenues to satisfy the urge to connect with the people on such vital issues,” she said. By now quite adept at striking a balance between films, politics and her dance, Hema Malini says it was early disciplining by her mother that came handy. “At that time I never liked the way my mother used to keep a strict vigil over my dance practice but it helped me in the long run. But, I could never force this kind of regimen on my daughters. My relationship with them is more of a friend,” added
the actress.
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Cheetah re-introduction project picks up speed
Dehradun, June 27 Cheetah became extinct in India almost six decades back and was last sighted in 1947 by Surguja Maharaja during a hunting campaign in Madhya Pradesh. The cat was subsequently declared extinct in 1952. The Union Environment and Forest Ministry had some time back commissioned a feasibility study for the possible re-introduction of Cheetah in the country. Project partner Wildlife Trust of India’s volunteers under the guidance of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) officials have concluded the habitat suitability survey and identified as many as nine locations that could suit the re-introduction of the cheetah in one way or the other. Most of the sites are in Rajasthan with a few in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Sources reveal that wildlife experts are strongly backing the Thar region in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan state for the re-introduction of
the cheetah. This particular region shares its international boundary with Paksitan on the one side and the Army inhabits on the other. This according to experts could be the most safe site for translocation. However, the only problem here is that of cattle brought into this area by nomadic tribes. The other site Kuno in Madhya Pradesh is also being looked with much interest. Guru Gasidas National Park in Chhattisgarh also finds mention. Even Sariska and Ranthambore have been tapped for the purpose. Biotic pressure and human interferences continue to be major hindrances in the conduct of the exercise. The survey that involved an arduous task on trekking forest areas was conducted during the gruelling summer months with temperature even touching as high as 50°C in Thar areas. This apart from visiting sites that were affected with Naxal menace and needed to tread with utmost caution while undertaking
the survey. WII Dean Vinod Mathur said the cheetah re-introduction projects were being speedily pursued and report was in the final stages and was expected to get completed by July end. The WII was credited with the first-ever tiger relocation project in the country and the cheetah project if successfully done could be another feather in its cap. Interestingly, the African cheetah so far has been found the most suitable for re-introduction in India as getting the +Asian cheetah, now only found in Iran, will not be that easy taking into account its dwindling figures in that
very country. While the cheetah re-introduction may take another three to four years before it finally happens, the wildlife experts strongly believe that it will certainly help in protecting the desert wildlife. “Desert wildlife is very vulnerable and at least the cheetah's re-introduction will bring in more sensitivity to our desert areas, wildlife and ecology”, they say.
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Nainital
diary
With the tourism season at its peak, the city continues to grapple with the traffic problem daily. Traffic snarls have become a way of life for the town these days and driving on the Mall Road, whether it is Tallital to Mallital or vice versa, has become a nightmare. Things have come to such a pass that locals prefer to walk around the town than to have a tough time driving in their own vehicle.
The scenario got further complicated last week when, much to the surprise of people, an excavator that was deployed to clean the muck out of the Naini Lake sunk in the lake. The driver of the vehicle had a narrow escape as he managed to jump out of the vehicle barely minutes before the machine went under water. Thereafter, it took three days and an equal number of cranes to take the excavator out of the lake. Since these cranes had to be deployed on the Lower Mall Road, the road was shut for traffic movement and the entire load was shifted on the main Mall Road. Things came to a pass that on Thursday it took almost three hours to get from one end of the town to the other. There had been a comprehensive publicity into announcing ambitious plans for traffic management by the administration before the start of the tourist season.
Cops’ protest
gets boost
There was also another factor at work when it came to the traffic chaos of Thursday. It was a silent protest by the lower-rung police officials who had decided to look the other way. The policemen were agitated over the developments in the matter pertaining to a fracas between a group of lawyers and the police personnel at the Jyolikote police post on Monday night. After a protest by the lawyers of the High Court, senior police officials had gone on to arrest five police officials and a Home Guards jawan while they failed to initiate any action like registration of a cross case against the lawyers. This had led to the “demoralising of the force” as the lower-rung officials put it. These personnel who had decided not to man the traffic effectively that day were seen with a sinister smile when a local media person pointed out: “The cranes have come in the aid of you. Given the fact that you are a part of a force and could not lodge a public protest, the cranes have blocked the traffic for you and carried the message to the people.” Amid all this, it was the tourist who was at the receiving end throughout the day and people could be heard saying, “This is no better than the congested by-lanes of the Chandni Chowk in Delhi.”
With the heavy influx of tourists it is rickshaw pullers who are having a field day in Nainital these days. Given the immense parking problem, the high parking charges and the traffic snarls, the rickshaw is turning out to be the most convenient form of transportation on the Mall Road. Most of the visiting tourists from the plains are unwilling to walk, given the lifestyle back home. They do not want to walk it down to the hotels and, hence, look for a rickshaw to carry them to as close to their hotel as it can. Hence the rickshaw stands at Tallital and Mallital are seeing massive rush and long queues. The slogan on the hoarding of a mobile company atop these stands also conveys a meaning as it reads: “Ab mera number hai. (It is my turn now).”
While the tourists prefer to move around the Mall Road these days or to go boating, the locals are happy thronging the Flats Grounds to watch sporting action. Summer is also the time when club tournaments and other tourneys are organised at this place and the locals prefer to sit and enjoy the game of hockey or football there. For them, during their free time, it is better to sit on the stairs with homemade snacks, a cup of tea and smoking bidi than walking down the Mall Road like a tourist. Over the past one week they enjoyed the finals of the All-India Trades Cup Hockey tournament and right now they are in the middle of enjoying the All-India Sub Junior Wrestling tourney. The Flats are the central point of the town where the local population converges for a chit chat while enjoying whatever event is going on there. Along the stairs are a whole lot of roadside tea and snack vendors whose main clientele is locals and who get to do good business whenever there is a sporting action in the ground.
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Learn to live healthy life, says expert
Dehradun, June 27 Padamshri Prof KN Udupa Memorial Oration Award winner Dr SN Pandey, Professor and Head, School of Oriental Medicine and GOU, conducted a campaign for holistic health. Talking to The Tribune he said, “Jeena Seekho (learn to live) is a holistic health campaign. We teach and practically train participants the important aspects of life and living for improving health, beauty, vitality and adjustment at work place, family and society. Our approach is basically lifestyle intervention of members based upon ancient and modern sciences and by adopting different drugless measures of health improvement. Total fitness is our aim”. “For better health one needs to follow physical plan, mental plan, moral plan and spiritual plan,” Dr Pandey affirmed and said, “For the prevention of diseases we need to improve our dietary habits, need to have a sound sleep for seven-and-a-half hours, right sexual conduct, balanced diet, time management, right moral, ethical and spiritual conduct”. “With this we can prevent stress disorders, obesity, diabetes, cardiac diseases, respiratory diseases, arthritis, kidney diseases and cancer also,” he asserted.
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Doon’s soccer SMS service is one year old
Dehradun, June 27 Praising the move, Lt Col BMR Mehta (retd), Director, Media, All-India Football Federation, said, “You are doing a great service for spreading the football updates. I have got so used to it, that it has become a part of daily updates”. The www.DehradunFootball.com adopted a simple method for its mobile venture. Using the free SMS facilities available on the Internet, it is operating its daily SMS service. The football alert service made a humble beginning on June 27, 2009 with the aim of circulating the Dehradun football league result among football players and fans in the Doon valley. The overwhelming response of the service inspired the DehradunFootball.com team to spread in other parts of the country. Presently, over around 300 football fans across India are in the SMS list. But more than the number service is more important, stating this Nilesh Rana, Web Administrator of DehradunFootball.com, said, “We are managing the website with limited resources. We have managed to keep our SMS service operational due to dedication and love from the football lovers”. Besides Nilesh, Rohit Goyal, LP Thapa and Raju Gusain are in the DehradunFootball.com team. The SMS service extensively covered the National Football League, Dehradun Football League, Subroto Cup, Durand Cup, Governor’s Gold Cup, Assam League, Federation Cup, etc to name a few. Football historian and famous commentator Novy Kapadia, said, “It is playing a major role in popularising the Indian football, by providing results and updating information quickly. Indian football needs such publicity. One suggestion, try and add some tit bits of information, like a famous Indian player's birthday or landmark achievement like the 50th goal for his club or some such trivia”. Novy Kapadia was in Kolkatta recently to attend an international football seminar and when he told the participants about the football SMS service they were surprised. Over two dozen participants approach DehradunFootball.com to get listed in the SMS list. Football historian and editor of 90 Minutes (Kolkata) Subhransu Roy said, “Whenever due to some practical reasons we miss out important football matches or some time when the live telecast isn’t available, the little sweet SMS of DehradunFootball.com always comes up as a very useful one. I am sure in future this SMS service will remembered as an unique contribution in popularising the game of football in Indian soil and will play an influential role in the discourse of sports journalism in Indian sub-continent”. Cricket dominates so much space in the newspapers and TV news that football fans were looking for some alternative to get the latest information about football matches. The SMS service provided them a free and easy option. The process to get listed is also easy and one has to log on to the Dehradun football website and send the team a small SMS or email. Menla Ethenpa, Secretary, Sikkim Football Association, said, “June 27, 2009 should be recorded with golden letter in the history of football in India when DehradunFootball.com launched its football SMS service on daily basis that also free of charge. Especially, person like me who would all the time like to be in touch with the latest football news, this SMS service has done a yeoman job to fulfill such an aspiration”.
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Sports Hostel, Gypsy Club win one-sided matches
Dehradun, June 27 Saurav (31st), Pankaj (40th) and Shishir (48th) netted a goal each for the winning side while Shivalik failed to retaliate throughout the match. While Kiran scored hat-trick to help the Gypsy Club score 4-0 win over Garhwal Boys. Kiran scored in the fourth, 10th and 40th minutes of the game. Ankit Negi struck the fourth goal in the 50th minute. For tomorrow the Bajrang Club and Garhwal Sporting will play the first encounter. The Sports Hostel and the Cantt Blue will meet in the second match.
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Atul’s solitary goal leads City Young to victory
Dehradun, June 27 Both sides had a fierce encounter throughout the match. Strikers of both the teams made some good goal attempts but they proved futile. The first half remained goalless. However, in the next half, Atul Sood of the City Young managed to take the cake in the 50th minute when he found the target. The score proved the crucial one with no goal coming in later on in the game. Atul sent the Western Boys team in trouble though the side desperately made efforts at least to draw the match by scoring a goal. But the things didn’t happen in its favour. Tomorrow’s match will not be played due to some other tournament scheduled to be played on the Pavilion Ground and the league matches will resume from Tuesday again.
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Delhi ex-champ wins chess round
Dehradun, June 27 Another match played between Narender Singh Negi and Akhilesh Singh Negi ended in a draw. While DK Chopra beat Inderjeet Koshal and Anil defeated Kuldeep Acharya. Also, Sanjeev Suri got the better of Ashish Payal. In the fourth round, former Delhi chess champion DK Chopra beat Anil. Vinayraj Bhatt also got past Akhilesh. Surya Prakash Pokhriyal defeated Narender Singh. Sanjay Rana and Sanjeev Suri played draw and the match played between Rajeev Aswal and Mohan also ended in no-result.
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Promotional soccer tourney begins today
Dehradun, June 27 The children who took part in the camps will be playing in this championship. In total 13 teams are participating in this championship that will be played on knock-out basis till July 4. Zone 4 and Zone 9 (Team B) will play the first match tomorrow at 4:30 pm. “Out of the total zones where the camps were organised, three of them are Gujrara Tibetan Colony, Survey of India and Shyampur-Thakurpur have been divided into two teams each owing to large number of children in these zones,” Budhimaan Thapa, president of the foundation, said. Thapa said besides team prizes, individual prizes and certificates would also be given on the final day of the event. Best defender, best goalkeeper, best striker, best mid-fielder and fair play trophies would also be given away. “Our only aim is to promote football and for that whatever can we are doing with the little resources we have. Of course there is financial hindrance but we will not let it stop us,” Thapa added.
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Haryana lead with seven gold in wrestling
Dehradun, June 27 In the boys’ free-style category, Vikas of Haryana won gold medal in the 46-kg category and Praveen of the same state clinched gold medal in the 58-kg category. While in the women’s free style, Sanju Jakada won gold in the
40-kg category.
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