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Gang Canal Closure
Doing organic farming the traditional way
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First U’khand-centric film set for release
Indonesian varsity signs MoU with Dev Sanskriti
Higher education takes wheels
Gurukul girls enthral at 3-day annual cultural extravaganza
Thomso kicks off at IIT-R
MOU signed for perul-based industries
Records shatter at BHEL meet
RRMR, DIS to clash in b’ball final
Akshay, Nimish, Suraj register wins
Volleyball championship ends, dist teams selected
St Joseph Academy, KV (FRI) sail into semis
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Gang Canal Closure
Haridwar, October 28 Departments concerned seem to be unable to meet the deadline as the water will be released in the canal before Diwali. The exercise misses the buzz of participation by social-religious organisations, nodal agencies, educational institutions, NGOs and volunteers who used to come in large numbers to help in the cleaning drive. Last year, apart from the Irrigation Department, dozens of such organisations pitched in during the closure tenure to make the Ganga clean.
Admn’s reluctance
The district administration has also faltered this year as no steps have been taken from their side to make optimum use of the canal closure. Citing the excuse of busy administration schedule due to disbursal of disaster relief and damage assessment, officials have said other organisations haven’t contributed much in this procedure this time. District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram says a massive flood in the whole district has affected the canal development work as the whole district machinery remained involved in disaster management work.
Land dispute between
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
Thousands of acres of property in Haridwar belongs to Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department and the canal closure is also managed by it despite the area coming under the Uttarakhand territory. This dispute has also been affecting the objective of the canal closure, which is widely opposed by Uttarakhand-based religious and social organisations. Even Uttarakhand Irrigation Minister Matbar Singh Kandari has termed it as a tyrant step by the UP department as the closure is yearly done during peak festive season, which affects religious sentiments of pilgrims as well as revenue of Uttarakhand state. Pilgrims and tourists refrain from coming to the pilgrim city as there is insufficient water at Har-ki-Pauri where thousands of people take holy dip daily. Uttarakhand Irrigation Department Executive Engineer DD Dalakoti says their department cannot do much in this regard as the closure is enforced by the UP Department and until the irrigation property dispute is settled with Uttarakhand getting the right over the property in its purview, such problems like the timing of Gang Canal cleaning will only resurface again and again. Uttar Pradesh SDO, Ganga Canal Head Works, KP Singh says the closure is necessary for cleaning and developing the ghats. Before the canal flow is restored, the works will be completed. This time the silt has accumulated in the canal as well as at barrages in large amount. A glance around the Har-Ki-Pauri and adjacent ghats like Birla Ghat, Kushawart Ghat, Ganesh Ghat, Alaknanda Ghat, Damkoti Bridge, Prem Nagar Ashram just tell the sorry state of affairs as all over at these places huge piles of garbage, polythene, clothes and filthy water are to be seen, inviting the outbreak of contagious diseases. The Ganga Sabha, which looks after organisation of religious rituals as well as maintenance of Har-ki-Pauri, representatives of akharas, various NGOs, industrial houses and even police and Army units, none have till date carried out complimentary drives to clean the ghats and canal. Sudhir Mehta, secretary general of the Association of SIDCUL, states in the past few years administrative proposals have been received duly but this time no official word or letter has till date been received, but if any such proposal comes we will ensure full participation in the drive from our side.
Boon for coin pickers
Meanwhile, the canal closure has come as a boon for poor and slum dwellers residing on the Ganga embankment areas. On the dried up canal bed it’s easy for them to search coins and other valuable material. Be it children or women, everyone seems to be making optimum use of the closure tenure. “I have collected Rs 70 since early morning apart from many utensils, rings and even got two mobile phone sets but the shopkeeper gave me just Rs 50 for them. We dig the river bed but most of the items are found underneath stones,” said Anish (9) while searching coins at the Birla Bridge.
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Doing organic farming the traditional way
Dehradun, October 28 Belonging to the Raji and Bhootiya tribes of Pitthoragarh, the hardy women from nine villages are not only keeping their house fires burning, but are also purveyors of the traditional knowledge as practiced through their agriculture that does not rely chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Here in Doon, these women farmers were amazed at the fuss being made about something that they had known all their lives. “I am growing rice, traditional millets, horse gram, pulses and kidney beans in my agricultural plot at Didihaat. I learnt the methodology from my mother who had also learnt from her mother. All the seeds are preserved in mud containers year after year,” said Kalawati. The Raji tribe (Van Raut), a primitive Schedule Tribe residing mostly in the forests of Pitthoragarh, practises Jhum cultivation and have always kept away from social interaction. They restrict themselves to the forests that are even now eight to nine km away from the nearest road head. In fact, isolation has benefited the farmers allowing them to keep their agriculture free from pesticides and the influence of multinational companies (MNCs). “It is difficult to reach them. No wonder they have managed to preserve their agricultural practices,” said Renu Thakur of Arpan, a grassroots voluntary organisation that began working with the Rajis some 10 years back. Manwati, another tribal woman farmer, grows traditional foodgrains and pulses while her husband works as a carpenter in Dharchula. “We do not sell the produce in the market so the entire produce is used for domestic consumption. Recently, we adopted rice intensification also and the results seem to be good.” she said. Despite their tribal status, the thing going for these women is the absence of any gender disparity. Most women could be found working shoulder to shoulder with their men folk. But these women farmers have no access to irrigation facilities and are hoping to get these once they get land rights as envisaged in the Forest Rights Act 2006. In the off-season, these women also do not shy away from working at work sites. Similarly, Asmati Devi, belonging to the Bhootiya tribe from Dharchula, migrates to the mountains to grow kidney beans and potatoes in the Darma valley. “For eight months, we migrate to the upper reaches and grow kidney beans and potatoes, but when we come down, we have no agricultural land in Dharchula,” she said.
‘Motivate farmers to go green’ Tribune News Service
Dehradun, October 28 Speaking at a workshop on ‘Challenges and Scope of Sustainable Agriculture’ today, Vijay Jardhari, an activist of the Beej Bachao Andolan, said the government must come up with a clear-cut policy benefiting organic farmers so that they feel motivated to do so. The workshop was jointly organised by the DFID and Find your Feet, an NGO. Farmers from six development blocks participated in the meeting. He stressed that traditional agriculture could only survive if farmers took pains to preserve their traditional seeds. “This year has been a difficult year as most of the seeds preserved by farmers have been lost,” Jardhari said. On the occasion, Geeta Gairola, State Project Director, Mahila Samakhya, said that the contribution of women farmers was immense. “Women have immense knowledge about traditional agriculture. We need to give them more opportunities,” she said. Ravinder Singh Jena, an activist, said that due to the ill effects of the Green Revolution, more and more people are turning to organic farming.
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First U’khand-centric film set for release
Nainital, October 28 Bela Negi, who is the scriptwriter, director and editor of the film, is a girl who spent her formative years in Nainital which is her hometown. The film is unique in the sense as it is the first Bollywood attempt that has kept Uttarakhand at its core. Although a comedy, it hits hard at the prevailing socio-economic scenario of the state which is among the youngest in the Indian democracy. Another highlight of the film is that eminent poet Girish Tewari, who is fondly known as Girda, has acted in the film. Girda passed away in August this year and has a mass following in the region. Incidentally, the entire star cast of the film is from Uttarkhand. “The most important thing about Bela’s attempt is that she has chosen the entire cast from the mountain region of the state to talk about the issues related to the region. It is a commendable effort and we hope that the movie gets a good response from the people who watch it. “It is also a commendable effort at placing the state on the centre stage,” said veteran theatre activist from the region Zahoor Alam. In fact, Bela’s movie will be the opening film at the Second Nainital Film Festival that gets under way on Friday afternoon. Having studied from Sherwood College in Nainital, Bela moved on to do her graduation from the Delhi University and then enrolled with the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Pune. She now works in Mumbai and has assisted Renu Saluja in editing a range of feature films. She has now set up her own production house by the name of Nitric Films. The protagonist in the movie “Daayen ya Baayen” moves back to a village in Bageshwar after working in serials. He gets employment in a school as a teacher and dreams of setting up a performing arts academy in the hills. He comes across the ills that ail the culture of the hills at present. There are computers, but no teachers. Teachers are more interested in knitting than teaching. The women in the village are falling prey to regressive television serials and the entire culture of market -oriented consumerism is creeping in. It is amid such a scenario that the protagonist, played by Deepak Dobariyal, pursues his dream. Zahoor said that the film has been made after a considerable amount of research. “It touches a chord with people who belong to the hills,” he said. The other actors in the movie include Jitendra Bisht, Mukesh Dhasmana and Zahoor Alam. The music has been given by Vivek Philip and the film has been produced by Sunil Doshi.
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Indonesian varsity signs MoU with Dev Sanskriti
Haridwar, October 28 Indonesian University has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dev Sanskriti University for holding exchange programmes and researches in Indian culture, yoga, philosophy, naturopathy, panchkarma, Gayatri Mantra, pranik healing and acupressure. The MoU was signed by Indonesian University Chancellor Imed Titber and Dev Sanskriti University Chancellor Pranav Pandya here today. The MoU lays special emphasis on students and teachers from both sides visit each other’s universities under an exchange programme. Dr Titibr said in Indonesia, the Indian culture was very much present with every home having a temple. Particularly, the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are quite liked by Indonesians where Ramlila enactment is quite popular. He said many other similarities are also present in both countries which needed to be made bridges to bring people of both countries closer. This MoU will be quite helpful in this regard. Present among others at the signing of the agreement were Vice-Chancellor of DSU SP Mishra, Director of School of Yoga-Health Chinmaya Pandya, Dean I Newman Lingih, Dr Gushti Sudiyan, Dr I Med Suweta, research centre chief I Neghat Lestavi, spokesman Nee Ketut Saparyani and Dr Relin Del.
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Higher education takes wheels
Nainital, October 28 Vice-Chancellor Prof Vinay Pathak, said: “Our attempt is to take job-oriented education to the people who reside in areas where commuting is a problem. The signing of this MoU is a landmark step in this direction”. The two institutions will be working jointly on a project that has been named, “A Hole in the Wall”, which aims at starting mobile study centres across the state. According to the IKC representatives present at the event, these vans will target people who have dropped out from pursuing higher education. These vans will be having all knowledge-disbursing tools like computers, GPRS and video conferencing facilities. These facilities will also be used to provide assistance to farmers in improving agricultural productivity. According to the Registrar of the University, Prof RC Mishra, the project will start with two vans, each costing Rs 15 lakh approximately, out of which Rs 8 lakh will be spent on its furnishing. A series of consultants will be visiting far-off places in these vans.
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Gurukul girls enthral at 3-day annual cultural extravaganza
Haridwar, October 28 This annual function is much awaited by students as not many activities are held in this college though it is a sister branch of Gurukul Kangri University. So, from mehndi-making, rangoli, debate, dance, song, essay-writing, quiz to painting, varied events were held. In the quiz contest in the team event Neelam Daksh, Pratibha, Ayushi and Archana won the final round bagging the first prize, while Pooja Sharma, Neelam, Ritika and Akanksha were the runners-up, followed by the team comprising Shikha,Tanjua, Arti and Prabhjot. Mona Kumari impressed the judges and audience to score maximum points in the speech competition with Anju Tomar and Swati Chauhan winning second and third prizes, respectively. In the song and dance events, the participants made the atmosphere dip in religious-classical and Bollywood flavour. In the song competition, there were joint winners, Pooja Dhiman and Abha Sharma, with both impressing with their sonorous, vocal voice quality and Jayashree and Shiva Chauhan were adjudged the second and third winners. Similarly, in the dance competition, Shiva Chauhan, who was third in the song event, won the competition with a beautiful classical presentation followed by Anuradha Kumari and Ekta Kumari. Addressing the conclusion ceremony, college Principal Dr Sangeeta Vidyalankar emphasised on the importance of such events which provided students a platform to exhibit their hidden talent or test their skills with other compatriots. Vidyalankar also urged students to follow the traditional value system which only enhanced one in various fields of life, be it studies sports or development of the overall personality. On the occasion were present Dr Mudita Agnihotri, Dr Seema Sharma, Dr Abha Shukla, Dr Bindu Malik, Dr Sonal Sharma, Dr Maneela, Dr Veena Vishnoi, Dr Rekha Singh, Dr Anjali Goyal, Dr Deepa Gupta, Dr Richa Saini, Dr Rekha Malik, Dr Nidhi Handa, Dr Varinder Valia, Dr Padma SIngh and representatives of Gurukul Kangri University.
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Thomso kicks off at IIT-R
Dehradun, October 28 In today’s highlights was the “Footloose” dance competition that saw 45 teams sailing into the final stages of this group category. Under the individual dance category, 35 performers have been shortlisted for the finals while in the duet category 10 pairs have been selected. The salsa event comprised entries for couples where a professional from Mumbai, Rolak, was conducting a workshop. Everyone was seen enjoying and swaying to the beats of salsa. “It is a great experience for us to learn from the professionals even though the time is restricted,” said Deepshikha and her partner Arun. Budding models with jazzy hairdo were seen walking the ramp during the “Vouge” fashion show where participants from 15 teams walked the ramp for a spot in the final five. However, the general student bodywas disappointment at the lack of professionals performing on the stage this time at Thomso. Mesmerising music will be displayed by the talented students during “Battle of Bands” and MGJF. Each of these two events has about 20 bands each wherein three from each event will be shortlisted for “Wargasm”, the final showdown. The Roorkee school for Deaf and Dumb was much in the limelight today where special children with their inherent talent gave an excellent cultural programme for the first time at Thomso. Spectators were left spellbound. Patro Bando said, “Had someone told me about their presentation I would have not believed but I am so happy to witness their show,” it’s amazing!
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MOU signed for perul-based industries
Dehradun, October 28 The Forest Department had been contemplating entering into the MoU with the private entrepreneurs. The government approval will pave the path for setting up perul-based, biobrickets and power generation, industries. Patnaik said the usage of perul would lead to the minimisation of forest fires and create new employment opportunities. He said perul would also result in the opening up of alternative sources of energy in the form of power generation. He said the units of these industries would be established in areas, which were devoid of industries.
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Records shatter at BHEL meet
Haridwar, October 28 Speaking to The Tribune, Sanaya said apart from her family support, she specially wanted to mention the AFI help in nurturing her talent. She said despite the windy and cold conditions prevalent in Haridwar, which were quite contrary to her home city Mumbai, she was able to perform this record breaking race due to an intense determination. In the field events, the day was for the Bhiwani (Haryana) throwers who set two new meet records in shot put and discus throw disciplines. In boys’ u-16 shot put event, Monu of Bhiwani (Haryana) put the shot till 15.46-m mark to create a new meet record. Shakti Solanki of Delhi and Vivek Kumar of Una district in Himachal Pradesh won the silver and bronze medals, repectively, with their shot put distance measuring 15.09m and 14.65m, respectively. Another stellar performance came in the form of a new meet record in discus throw in the same u-16 category when Yogesh surpassed the alltime meet record of 46-m mark set up in previous meet by hurling the discus to 46.26-m mark. Shashank of Varanasi (UP) claimed the silver who hurled the discus to 42.71m while Varun Taneja got bronze with 37.78-m throw.
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RRMR, DIS to clash in b’ball final
Dehradun, October 28 RRMR Academy thrashed Hilton School 47-23. The winning team won the first three quarters 12-6, 14-4, 16-5 and lost in the fourth quarter 5-8. Mehboob was top scorer for RRMR with 15 points. Kartik Yadav (10 points) did his best for Hilton. In the second close semifinal, Doon International School (DIS) beat Pestle Weed College 47-42. DIS lost the first quarter 6-9 and won the next two 10-9 and 5-2. It lost narrowly in the fourth quarter 15-16. After a score of 36-36, the two sides were given extra period of five minutes in which DIS won by 11-6. Siddharth performed brilliantly with 18 points for the winning team. For Pestle Weed, Uttkarsh scored 13 points.
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Akshay, Nimish, Suraj register wins
Dehradun, October 28 Nimish beat Kartik 11-4, 11-7, 9-11 and 11-7 while in another match while Suraj defeated Ashish Chahuan 11-2, 11-2 and 11-6. In boys’ under-17 doubles, the pair of Neelam Tiwari and Vivek Rana won by 11-8, 11-6, 11-3. Pre-quarterfinal under-17 were played till the filing of this report and the rest of the matches continued till late in the evening.
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Volleyball championship ends, dist teams selected
Dehradun, October 28 During the championship, district teams that will play in the State Volleyball Championship to be held on November 1 and 2 on the Parade Ground were also selected by the District Volleyball Association. Girls’s district volleyball team comprises Suman, Asha Bharti, Khushi, Savrina, Harneet Kaur, Meghna, Kirti, Jyoti Srivastav, Jyoti Verma, Rakshita, Neha and Neha Srivastav. Boys’ district volleyball team comprises Shaadan, Gaurav, Shantam, Ajay Badola, Sanidhya, Trishant, Dhruv, Manu, Himanshu, Mohit and Abhishek.
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St Joseph Academy, KV (FRI) sail into semis
Dehradun, October 28 KV (FRI) in the first quarterfinal beat Doon Valley School 3-1. Shubham (4th minute) and Ashish (21st, 29th) scored in the win of KV (FRI). Jeet Bahadur (45th) was the lone support for Doon Valley School. St Joseph also surpassed Manav Bharti, Mussoorie, 1-0 in another quarterfinal matche to enter the semis. Abhishek (32nd) was the star of the match scoring the lone and much-needed goal for the winning side. Tomorrow in the pre-quarterfinals, Mehrishi Vidya Mandir will meet SGGR Mission.
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The rich diversified cultural and spiritual, religious and educational heritage of India seem to be influencing the world with foreign nations showing tremendous interest in forging tie-ups with Indian educational institutions to share the Indian expertise particularly in the fields of yoga, philosophy, religion, spirituality and naturopathy.
Haridwar, October 28
Dehradun, October 28
