Dehradun, August 13
Perturbed by a lukewarm response of the state government to the City Gas Supply Pipeline Scheme, Manorama Dobriyal Sharma, general secretary of the All-India Mahila Congress and former Mayor, today urged the government to build awareness about the scheme that would even be extended to Dehradun.

Addressing a press conference here, Manorama said soon tenders would be invited for the scheme and if the state government showed interest, it could even be extended to Dehradun. “We should grab the opportunity and the state government could take the initiative by publicising about the scheme, even private players could participate in the tender process,” she said.

The scheme approved by the Central Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board will be extended to seven cities of Roorkee, Haridwar, Ramnagar, Rudrapur, Kashipur, Haldwani and Kathgodam. The pipeline is likely to be commissioned by 2012 and the bidding process will start in early 2011.

“The work for extending the pipeline is already on in Kashipur and Rudrapur and in the coming days our city will also be linked. The benefits of the scheme are manifold, for environmentally fragile state it ensures protection for our forest wealth,” added Manorama.

She said last year too tenders were called but no one made a bid. “We should not allow the effort to go waste this time around,” she stressed. Refusing to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the Chief Minister, she said: “How much weight the accusation carries is still to be verified. I cannot comment on a situation merely on the basis of accusations. These are my personal views,” she said.

Pitthoragarh, August 13
Bishan Singh Chufal, state BJP chief, said here today that his party would contest 2012 Vidhan Sabha elections in the state on the issue of the development works of the BJP government and failure of the Congress-led United progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre on the front of rising prices of essential commodities in the state.

“It is the UPA government at Centre which has failed on the front of rising prices” said Chufal. The BJP chief said the Congress in the state continuously pressing the attention of people towards the failure of the BJP in the state on the instruction of the UPA at centre. “They need to divert the attention of people because they are not in position to control the rising prices of essential communities,” said BJP chief.

Chufal claimed that his government in the state was working silently for the development of the state. “We have linked all villages having population of 500 with the roads and now we are linking villages with the population of 250 to the roads, the work will be completed before 2012 elections,” said Chufal.

According to Chufal, the blame of the Congress on the state government about the allotment of 56 hydro electric projects was baseless, as no agreement was signed by the government with any bidder.

The state BJP chief said in coming 18 months his party would concentrate on the basic problems of the people living in the interior areas of the state.

“To get this target we have assigned, at least, six days for the assembly constituency, two days for regional office and seven days for the state office for any minister or office holder in the government,” said Chufal.

Dehradun, August 13
Expressing resentment over the non-fulfilment of their demands, the Uttarakhand Anodlankari Sanyukt Manch said today that they would launch an agitation.

Members of the association held a press conference at the Hindi Bhawan here today. They said they would fight for their rights. On September 1, when the anniversary of the Khatima firing incident falls, they have planned to hold a campaign “Karo ya Maro” against the government.

While on September 2, the Mussoorie firing incident anniversary, a fast would be observed at the district headquarters. On October 1, the Naarson firing incident and on October 2, the Rampur Tiraha incident anniversary, fast would be observed in protest.

The association has also planned to march to the residence of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on October 3 to press for their demands. President of the association Nanda Balabh Pandey and convener Manoj Dhyani said they were not getting pension regularly and even the fraud statehood agitators had got jobs while the active agitators had been neglected.

Haridwar, August 13
In a major success, the Haridwar police today arrested a criminal wanted desperately by the Uttar Pradesh police in various cases.

Sunil Valmiki. alias Rajesh, of Fazilpur Khatikpur, Meerut, was arrested by the Lakshar police at the Lakshar railway station.

Sunil Valmiki has been facing trial in a dozen cases file at police stations of Uttar Pradesh. These include dacoity and ransom. He has been convicted in an attempt to murder case for life imprisonment and 10-year punishment in another case. Four cases are still pending in the lower courts against him. He had a reward of Rs 15,000 on his arrest.

As per the Uttar Pradesh police, Sunil was in the Meerut jail from July, 2004, till early last month. On July 19, he escaped from the jail.

When The Tribune talked to the criminal while in police custody, he said he, along with two other jail inmates, had planned an escape about 18 months ago as the laxity by jail employees made their access to sharp-edged weapons and other related things easy. They used to cut the ventilator window of the lavatory continuously for months during night hours for 10-20 minutes. Two inmates would cut the window while one guard outside. After the iron rods had been cut they used to put a sticking substance so that the jail security personnel did not find anything suspicious.

Later, they cut a 40-foot pipe to make a stair out of it and waited for a monsoonal rain in midnight as that’s the time when security persons got a bit relaxed. They involved two other inmates in the plan and finally on July 19 night amid heavy rain pull off the escape.

But as he had changed his jail uniform midway leaving his brother’s phone in it, the police reached his brother’s house in Pinjore near Chandigarh. When Sunil came to know about it he changed his plan.

He came to Uttarakhand and here too he used to carry on his nefarious activities like selling illegal liquor and used to commit thefts due to which he was also arrested by the Roorkee police a few days ago. He told the police a fictitious name to hide his criminal past.

On the achievement of the district police, SSP Sanjay Gunjiyal has lauded the efforts of a police team comprising SO Neelam Rawat, constables Sadhab and Shashi Chauhan.

Sunil has been charged under Sections 21 and 22 of the NDPS Act as 253 nitro-10 tablets were seized from him.

Dehradun, August 13
In a new twist to man-elephant conflict in Uttarakhand, the movement of pachyderms has been noticed in the Nagalhatnlala gram panchayat region of Sahastradhara in Dehradun.

Numbering three, these elephants have destroyed paddy crop and uprooted ginger plants in the fields.

These jumbos, which hide in the nearby forest areas, have taken a fancy to Brahmapuri, Bandawali and Keri Mansanghwali village areas. Crops on 10-12 bighas have been destroyed by the elephants.

Veer Singh Chauhan, a local representative of Nagalhatnlala gram panchayat, said that villagers have been taken by surprise by these beasts.

He claimed that this was the first time that he had witnessed elephant intrusion in the interiors of Sahastradhara region. “Even village elders deny seeing an elephant in this region of Dehradun,” asserts Veer Singh.

Dr AK Singh of the Wildlife Trust of India who has been studying elephants in the Shivalik region for the past many decades pointed out that with reducing food and water in Rajaji and the adjacent forest areas, elephants could be moving to new territories.

The affected farmers - Trilok Singh, Anil Dobhal, Shakar Singh and Ratanmani - have now appealed to the Mussoorie-Dehradun authorities for prompt action. Mussoorie forest officials have already started a night vigil in the affected areas to keep track of the jumbos.

DFO Mussoorie Ram Gopal said they were constantly keeping a track of the elephants so as to ensure that there were no human injuries of any sort.

“Our team of four forest officials led by a ranger is camping in Sahastradhara region round the clock,” Ram Gopal said adding that the elephants could have come from the adjoining Thano forest area.

Dehradun, August 13
Making learning interesting and pupil-friendly comes naturally to John Scottus School (Dublin) teacher Rutger Kortenhost, who has himself not stopped learning. In between teaching English to schoolchildren and holding training classes for teachers in the state, Rutger has also enrolled himself at a institute in Puducherry, where he is learning Sanskrit.

There are 20 schools in Uttarakhand run by the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), among these are innovative Van Gujjar Schools at Gendi Khata, Tarbar, Sahashra and Dhaulla Tapar and all these schools are benefiting from Rutger and his kind of learning.

“Everywhere teaching skills have to upgraded and teachers taught to unlearn and relearn something. When we began teaching English to these children, it was little difficult so we thought of involving teachers and organising classes for them. I think it is working,” he said.

Initially when he began teaching elementary English to students here, St James Reading Scheme from Ireland was his guide, but he soon realised that the level was little higher. “So lots of informal learning experiments like singing and dancing were incorporated to make learning interesting. I am here till August. In Dublin there is a sizable population mostly Irish and Indian waiting to learn Sanskrit, such is the craze for this ancient language which has almost been forgotten in the home country,” said Rutger.

In fact, he has collected a dedicated band of volunteers from Ireland comprising Aine Murphy, Michelle Jill, Lorna Allen, Celine Traynor and Sandra Oneila together with teachers from Kolkatta Soumitra Bhattacharya and Sushila Marandi who are making English learning easy and exciting.“English is a link language, we want our children to learn English at a very early stage so that they stand in good stead when they face competition,” said Avdhash Kaushal, RLEK chairperson.

The classrooms too are informal, the students are encouraged to take up role play and assume responsibility of a teacher. “The best students are entrusted the responsibility of teaching the less endowed while teachers take a back seat, it instills responsibility and team spirit,” said Aine Murphy, a volunteer from Dublin.

Mussoorie, August 13
More than 51 unit of blood was collected in a blood donation camp held under the aegis of the National Social Service Scheme (NSS) at Ghananand Government Inter College here today. The students from various schools and colleges participated in the camp. Chief guest on the occasion was the Chief Adviser to the Chief Minister, Rajesh Naithani, also donated one unit blood on the occasion.

He said he was donating blood for the 12th time and the programme was being run under the project “Samvedna”. The objective of the project was to collect blood from all over the state and donate it to the government hospitals as the IMA Blood Bank was out of reach for the poor. He also said the target of the project was to collect 75,000 unit of blood in a year. He said the project would be carried out in the colleges and polytechnics in near future.

Naithani was of the view that the programme would achieve the similar success as in the Sparsh Ganga project and won accolades for the state. The collection would not only make the government hospitals sufficient, but would also assist the medical fraternity in the region around. NSS State Communication Officer Dr Anand Uniyal said the project was to motivate students towards donating blood to the government hospitals. He said the project would be carried out in various institutions of the state and Graphic Era Institute had already pledged of donating 3,500 unit blood in this month.

The next camp would be held on August 16 at Pauri. NSS Programme Officer Ram Naresh Verma also donated blood on the occasion. Principal SS Kaira, KC Bhatt, SP Tomar, Bhaskar Deorani, Satinder, Usha Chaudhry and others were also present on the occasion.

Dehradun, August 13
The ONGC is celebrating its foundation day on August 14. To mark the celebration, a cycle rally will be organised which will be flagged off by ONGC CMD RS Sharma.

The cycle rally will commence from Tel Bhawan, Dehradun, and after taking a circuitous route of about 9 km, it will culminate at the ONGC Community Centre, ONGC Colony, Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun.

Participation is from various sections of the city, including ONGC people, students, Army officers, cycling enthusiasts and environmentalists. This venture is actively supported by the Doon Green Cycling Club, Dehradun. The rally will be led by S Jawaid Qaisar, Chief Engineer (E&T), ONGC, who is an avid cycling enthusiast.

The rally highlights advantages of cycling to individual, society and the environment. By organising the event, the ONGC intends to disseminate the message to the people to take active initiative towards reducing global warming by adopting practices and habits showing concern for environment protection.