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Sikhs to raise Gyan Godri Gurdwara at Har-ki-Pauri only
Peaceful protest on Sept 22
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Can’t spare force for C’wealth Games, state tells Centre
Tiger Census Report In Phase III
ABVP protests Centre’s education policy
Demonstration leads to traffic chaos in Doon
Varsity celebrates Engineers Day
IAS probationers visit Raphael Home
Bridge tourney begins in Nainital
Aryan School, Welham register easy victories
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Sikhs to raise Gyan Godri Gurdwara at Har-ki-Pauri only
Haridwar, September 16 The organisations have even declined the proposal of the local administration of providing them a piece of land in the city to establish the gurdwara. Earlier, the proposal was accepted by the local Gyan Godri Committee. Notably, Gyan Godri Gurdwara was set up at Har-ki-Pauri in the memory of Guru Nanak Dev who visited the spot in 1504-05. He had done a “sadhna” there and had an interaction with local teerth purohits too. But, in the 1970s it was demolished in the name of renovation and was later handed over to Bharat Scouts and Guides, which still has its office at the same place. Since then Sikh organisations have been demanding allocation of the same place for the construction the gurdwara. A Sikh convention was held recently in Haridwar wherein Sikh organisations and representatives from many states participated. They passed various resolutions regarding the construction of Gyan Godri Gurdwara at its original place. An 11-member committee has also been formed to chalk out plans and procedures for taking the land back for the construction of gurdwara as it has a special religious significance for the Sikh community as well for the country. At the convention it was specified that any direct conflict due to this issue with any community or the government would avoided and only peaceful ways would be adopted to press for the demand. Baba Bachan Singh Bhurewale has been appointed chief of the 11-member committee which will be taking up the issue at various platforms in the country. Baba Bachan Singh, who presided over the convention, said the issue would be taken at the national level as local Gyan Godri Committee, which was formed earlier, failed to do any substantial progress in the matter. The local Gyan Godri Committee, which was dissolved at the convention, boycotted the convention accusing outside Sikh organisation leaders of interfering in their local jurisdiction and trying to dilute the communal harmony of Haridwar. National coordinator of the Shiromani Guru Sikh Committee Indra Singh Chug said the newly formed committee would be taking up this matter with the Prime Minister as well with other national leaders. After meeting the Prime Minister and seeing the response of the local administration, the committee will decide on the future course of action in the
matter.
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Peaceful protest on Sept 22
Dehradun, September 16 Gurcharan Singh Babbar, president of the All-India Sikh Conference (Babbar), said prominent Sikh personalities, including president of the SAD (Maan) Simarnjit Singh Mann and Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, would offer prayer at the site on October 2. Babbar said since the gurdwara had a historical significance dating back to 450 years, they had spurned the offer of the state administration to take any other piece of land for the construction of gurdwara. They had placed a revenue record of pre-1947 before the administration and wrote to the Centre to hand over the land to Sikh leaders, but to no avail. He made it clear that the Sikh community could go to any length to get their demand fulfilled.
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Can’t spare force for C’wealth Games, state tells Centre
According to police sources, the Centre had asked the state police to send a battalion of Reserved Police Force, which comprises six companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) for
security duties. However, the state police has shot off a letter to the Centre telling them about their inability to send the force. Senior police officers said since Uttarakhand was very small and due to coinciding of its own internal responsibilities with the two events it couldn’t afford to send the force. The security was to be provided at the Commonwealth Games from October 3 to 14 and for the six-phase Bihar Assembly elections for a month from October 21 to November 20. “This a small state which can not afford sending its force to other parts of the country at this point when it needs security the most here. The verdict on the Ayodhya title suit is a sensitive issue and we cannot take any chances. We are trying to ensure that sufficient force is available in the state to prevent any untoward incident. The date of the verdict may also defer and may coincide with the CWG and in that situation we don’t want to be in a fix. “Besides, the force will also remain occupied in the Vidhan Sabha session and upcoming festive season, including Dussehra. Thus, we are not in a position to send the force even for the forthcoming Bihar elections,” Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) SK Bhagat told The Tribune.
Security up in view of Ayodhya verdict
Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand police is making elaborate security arrangements ahead of the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya title suit on September 24. The police has identifed vulnerable places and accordingly making security arrangements. Additional PAC will be provided to the two
regions, Garhwal and Kumaon, of the state in view of the 125-year-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid legal dispute in Ayodhya. ADGP (Law and Order) SK Bhagat said: “We have asked to identify vulnerable places and keeping surveillance over them. We will provide additional PAC to Garhwal and Kumaon regions for security.” Keeping in mind that the court decision, either way, could lead to serious law and order problems in the state having a sizable minority Muslim population, the state police would be keeping a tight vigil on the situation. “We are dividing some of the places of the state into large and small pockets. Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts fall under the category of large format considering the number of Muslims in these regions while low density places of Muslims, including Haldwani, have been put under small format,” Bhagat added.
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Rural Homestay crumbling
Dehradun, September 16 This scheme had begun at a much-hyped note with the Tourism Minister and the head of the UTDB briefing the media over changing a big leaf in the history of state tourism where people in villages at scenic locations were to be given training and clients (domestic and international tourists) by the Mahindra group. Some of the shortlisted villagers too had come and talked to the media sharing their interest about the bright future prospects this scheme had in store for them. That day gone, no one heard of it again. With the change of guard, everything changed. When Rajiv Bhartari, Additional Secretary (Tourism), whose brainchild this scheme is considered, was shifted as Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Eco-tourism, this project too lost steam, as if none else had anything to do with it. Till two months ago, when The Tribune contacted officials at the UTDB, they had no clue of it but assured of digging deep into the matter. It was on Wednesday, Deputy Director AK Singh said he had contacted the Mahindra group and asked for their progress report. “We received the detailed report about the clubs/resorts run by Mahindra all over the country but not of regarding this scheme. I’ve written to them to provide me with that information”. Vimla Dorairaju, business head of Mahindra Clubs and Resorts, said: “It seemed that after the state government started a big project of rural tourism separately on its own, and with the change in the administrative set up in the Tourism Department, our project got a severe setback. We too held up our plans since the state government was an important partner of this tripartite agreement under an MoU”. Vimla also said the group before halting its tempo had initiated their plans with some of the villagers in Harsil, Haldwani, Nainital and provided them training by roping in local NGOs. Seeing the revived interest of the UTDB in the project once again, she expressed hope of resuming the remaining work expeditiously in coming times. AK Singh said after the department rummaged through the requisite documentation work and the rainy season too got over, the Tourism Department would forge ahead with the project. This case truly exemplified the saying: “Haste makes waste”. In a hastening bid to move ahead with the mega project of rural tourism funded by the Central government at a cost of Rs 730.61 lakh, the UTDB got more engaged in chalking out plans to develop tourism in 12 villages of the state to get and utilise finances received from the Centre. Under this hurried approach, it ignored implementation of the Rural Homestay scheme. This typical “sarkari” attitude dampened the morale of those villagers who had big hopes from this project. These are not the villagers who are illiterate and ignorant but well-qualified and well-off sections, many retired bureaucrats, who have built beautiful cottages in some of the most picturesque interiors of Uttarakhand. Some of them had been renting out their cottages but what they lack is the professional training, access to widespread marketing and business volume. Suman Anand, managing partner of Camp and Corbett cottages at Kaladungi, said: “I expected booming business after tying up with business giant like Mahindras but alas, we just got seven to eight tourists in last one year from them. Six of my cottage rooms always remained empty. The Tourism Department of Uttarakhand should have kept a tab on the progress but it seems completely disinterested”. She otherwise appreciated Mahindras for being professional in maintaining correspondence and timely payment of bills to her. HC Joshi, owner of the Jaagar resort at Dhanpur village, near the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve, is not even that much fortunate. He got no business from the Mahindra group. “People from Mahindras came to my place for verification, clicked pictures and made videos, shown immense interest but did not get back after that. I am at a loss to know what happened,” he said. Probably after the state government shows interest in this project, Mahindras may show promptness in Joshi’s resort thereafter.
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Tiger Census Report In Phase III
Dehradun, September 16 “Some southern states and the North-East are still to covered in the census for camera trapping purposes and the report could be out sometime in April, 2011,” said Dr
Sankar. Camera traps are to be set up in Karnataka, Kerala and the North East as part of
the phase III of the census exercise. It was for the first time that the entire tiger range states of the country have been covered in the census. “We are not leaving out any tiger range area in the country and newer areas like Sundarbans and North East, that were left out in the last census have also been included this time,” he pointed out. About insurgency-hit areas, Dr Sankar said
Naxal-affected areas in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have also been covered in the census. Even slain sandalwood smuggler Veerapan’s territory of Satyamangalam forests have recorded as many as eight tigers this time. “We have employed local researchers and even voluntary organisations in these areas to facilitate a smooth conduct of tiger census proceedings,” he said, adding that the tiger census this time has been smooth and without any hitch. The camera traps have been extensively used for the census and the experiences from the maiden census have been put to use to get improvements. Responding to a query, he did not rule out the tiger number increasing in the new census. The Research Coordinator of the the WII admitted that poaching, lack of forest connectivity, dwindling prey species and shift from 1:3 male-female tiger ratio were some of the factors detrimental to population of tigers in the country. The maiden tiger census conducted by the WII in collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India has recorded 1,411 tigers in the country.
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BHEL-Haridwar staff bag nine Shram Awards
Haridwar, September 16 The prestigious award is given to employees working in public as well as private sectors working in the Indian territory. This time these awards, 52 in all, were given for a time period of two years from 2005-07. Nine employees from
Haridwar-based Ranipur unit won the Shram awards bringing laurels to the state. These nine awardees are Rajveer Singh, Bhagmal Kumar, Satyapal
Chauhan, Karan Singh, Ghasitu Ram, Karan Singh, HP Joshi and VL Ahuja. A total of 19 employees sharing 13 awards belonging to BHEL units of Ranipur
(Haridwar), Bhopal and Tiruchi shared the coveted awards, which were given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning. Notably, the awards are the nation's highest honour bestowed on individuals for their outstanding contribution and achievements leading to higher productivity, improved quality, higher safety levels, import substitution and foreign exchange savings. The awards were instituted in 1985 by the Union Ministry of Labour carrying a cash prize, sanad and citations. Among these, 13 are Shram
Bhushan, five are Shram Vir while seven are combined Shram Shree and Shram Devi award winners. The highest award among the Shram categories is of Shram Ratna that carries a prize of Rs 2,00,000, along with
sanad, while Shram Bhushan carries Rs 1,00,000, Shram Veer Rs 60,000 and Shram Shri Rs 40,000. Till date, a total of 70 BHEL employees have won these national Shram awards in 57 categories proving the capability of the company which provides more than 80 per cent electrical equipment to the country's
requirement. Ranipur unit officials and employees have expressed their happiness in the employees bagging 13 Shram awards terming it as a proud moment for the company which has strongly realised the value of the quality of human resources in view of changing business environment, wherein
globalisaiton, competition, customer satisfaction, change of economic policies pose a serious challenge. Notably, the government of India has also recently announced the Prime Minister's Shram Awards for 2008 in which again BHEL employees have won the credits with four workmen winning these prestigious awards that include one Shram Bhushan award. The other personalities present were Minister of Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge and Minister of State for Labour and Employment Harish
Rawat, who is also an MP from Haridwar where BHEL-Ranipur unit is situated.
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ABVP protests Centre’s education policy
Haridwar, September 16 Various meetings and protests were held in the entire district by the outfit as part of the statewide protest programme scheduled by the Uttarakhand ABVP unit to oppose the commercialisation of education sector. Buoyed by the success in various colleges of the city, ABVP activists took out a protest rally and blocked the traffic on the main road near old Ranipur intersection, raising slogans against the Union Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibbal. The Shravannath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College newly-elected chief Gaurav Sharma said not only the professional, but the basic school education was going beyond the reach of the common man. Apart from private educational institutions, educational institutes, which are run by the government or are aided, are also providing education at exorbitant fees. City coordinator Shiv Chaudhari pointed that the HRD Ministry seemed to be competing with developed countries’ education system, but failed to understand that there was quite a difference between developed nations and a developing country like ours. Elated over the success in the college union election in Dehradun, Vikas Nagar, Haridwar and Rishikesh, Chaudhari said this had once again proved the popularity, ideology and working of the outfit which was quite different from other student organisations. Party workers also burnt the effigy of the Union ministry taking out a procession through the city's busiest intersections which affected the traffic movement. At the protest present were Indresh Gaud, Harshit Gupta, Gaurav Giri, Utkarsh Walia, Deepak Pawar, Akshay Rathi, Deepak Raturi, Pradeep Rawat, Anubhav Baliyan, Varun Baliyan, Satwinder, Sunil, Vineet Walia, Ujjwal Walia, Kheemanand Joshi and various student union
members.
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Demonstration leads to traffic chaos in Doon
Dehradun, September 16 Agitated party members shouted slogans, raised flags and banners to protest against the the Central government’s education policy. They also accused the administration of converting the education into a commercial sector depriving less influential students from getting higher education. Present during at the protest were, Ashish Bahuguna, state president, ABVP, Moni, state secretary, Anshul Chawla, newly elected president from the party, DAV PG College and other members of the group.
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Varsity celebrates Engineers Day
Dehradun, September 16 A workshop on “Impending paradigm shift engineering science and future challenges” was held. Dr Rajender Dobhal, Director, UCOST, inaugurated the workshop. The chief conservator of the workshop was Jai Raj, Prof Dharm Buddhi, Shivalik College of Engineering, Dr Brijmohan Sharma, Director, Society for Pollution and Environmental Conservation Studies (SPECS), Dr Ajay Gairola, Director, Uttarakhand Pollution Board and Prof Mukesh Saxena, Graphic Era varsity who also shared their views and experiences on the related issues.
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IAS probationers visit Raphael Home
Dehradun, September 16 “It is a yearly visit by the organisation to study work done in the disability sector that forms an important part of their curriculum and as there is greater stress on the concept of inclusive growth, they cannot be ignored,” said Dr Gaurav Dwivedi, Deputy Director (Senior) and Course Coordinator The chairman of Raphael, Air Marshal BD Jayal (retd), welcomed the young trainees to the organisation and emphasised the significance of the young becoming the future torch-bearers of the underprivileged and the challenged. “All preconceived notions that I had about physically challenged persons were shattered. I found the young and the old engaged in artistic activities and leading a well-ordained life,” said Bharati Hollikeri, an IAS probationer. The CEO of Raphael, Brig AAS Sinha (retd), briefed the officers followed by a tour of Raphael and its various departments. The trainees interacted with the residents and took note of the facilities at the institute. “It is very important that persons with disabilities receive institutional care early so that later on they can be integrated with society,” said V Vikraman, trainee IPS of 85th Foundation Course. In all, 278 probationers of the 85th Foundation Course from will be visiting the institute in two days. A trainee (Indian Forest Services) from Nagaland Z Patton said the visit was inspirational. “The instructors are well trained and receptive to the nature of the curriculum that has to be taught in the classrooms,” she stressed.
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Dolphin institute holds tree plantation drive
Dehradun, September 16 A large number of people had participated on the occasion by planting trees of ashok, chestnut, bamboo, bougainvillea
and euphorbia. Arvind Gupta, Chairman of the college, also took active participation and encouraged the students to undertake such activities regularly. He also inaugurated an exhibition of line sketches and portraits made by students. The theme of the exhibition was “Forests for people and people for forests”. Significantly this is in context to forthcoming year 2011 as the International Year of Forests announced by the United Nations Organisation. The activity aims at creating awareness among people towards environment while emphasising on its conservation. The plantation drive by youth is the futuristic approach for their better tomorrow.
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Gundecha brothers mesmerise students
Dehradun, September 16 The Gundecha brothers were disciples of the famous
dhrupad vocalists, Ustad Zia Fariudhin Dagar and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. The brothers gave a performance on the great Hindi poetry of
Tulsidas, Kabir and Padmakar in dhrupad style. They explained that every time they performed, their composition was innovative and new and was rarely repetition of original compositions. A short movie on activities of Spic Macay was also shown for the benefit of the students. The Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University, Prof GP Srivastava, said Spic Macay was doing a wonderful work by keeping young minds of the country alive and acquainted with the traditional art and wished all success in their efforts. Present on the occasion were Pro VC Dr SC Deorani and Deans of various faculty. The complete programme was organised by the students’ body and compared by Shreyash Mazumdar and Sourabh Shanu.
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Ajay defeats Neeraj 29-27 in close singles
Dehradun, September 16 Till the filing of this news report, lucky doubles match was underway between pair of SC Gairola and Ram Singh Rawat against Suresh Joshi and Vivek Jain. The first set ended on former team favour with 29-26 and also the second was won by the latter
team with the identical score.
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Bridge tourney begins in Nainital
Nainital, September 16 Vice-President of the federation of India Siddarth Behura inaugurated the tournament today. Industrialist Umesh Modi was also present on the occasion at the Boat House Club where the event was
being held. Teams representing Kolkata, Delhi, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Rajasthan and the host Uttarakhand would be playing against each other over the next four days. Uttarakhand has
the largest number of participants with 30 players participating in it. The tourney is being held with the consent of the National Bridge Federation. President of the federation Arvind Prasad asserted that this is an open tournament and is a favourite amongst the players. Twelve to 14 national-level tournaments are played in a year around the country. International dignitaries like Kunwar Vijay Anand Singh and Subhash Goel are also participating as the underdogs. Many prominent national level players are also trying their luck by participating in the prestigious tournament. Arvind further added, “The National Bridge Tournament is going to be played in Calcutta from December 10 to 14 this year and this tournament will prove to be a rehearsal for the participants.” He said the finals of the tournament would be played on the September 19.
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Prashant fashions Carman victory
Dehradun, September 16 He scored in the 22nd minute of the game to become the star of the match. No goal came in the second half despite several good efforts and the match ended in the favour of Dalanwala. Doon Public School, Bhaniawala, defeated GRD Niranjanpur 2-1. Self-goal by Shivam of DPS scored the first goal in the 10th minute. Durgesh (35th) scored the second goal for GRD. Gaurav Rana (25th) was the only scorer for DPS. In another pre-quarterfinal, St Thomas' College beat Indian Public School 1-0. Sujjain Nepali (37th) scored this only goal. In the last pre-quarterfinal, Carman School, Premnagar, thrashed The Doon School 4-1. Ryan (eighth, 45th and 56th) and Sukhdev Bhatt (25th) scored for Doon while Sanjeet Suhag (fifth) netted the goal for Carman.
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Aryan School, Welham register easy victories
Dehradun, September 15 Efforts of Jagriti, who tops the score with eight points, went in vain as Carman couldn’t manage to register a win. Richa of the winning team scored six points. In the second match, Raja Ram Mohan Roy beat Moravian Institute 20-10. Sonal with 11 points ensured this easy win of the former team. Savita also fought well scoring eight points for Moravian. While mighty Welham Girls School toyed with DAV Public School whom it drubbed 77-18. Ashima (16) points played the pivotal role in the win of Welham. Anjana scored eight points.
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Motivational song for C’wealth Games released
Dehradun, September 16 Eight hit songs of ‘Titlee’ from different albums were also included in this Audio-CD. Olympian Hardayal Singh released the CD. JS Waraich, former hammer thrower, was also present on the occasion.
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Dehradun, September 16