Nainital, October 31
Films on socio-economic and political topics that have a significant relevance in the present-day scenario of the nation managed to make a good impact at the Second Nainital Film Festival.

The audience, although limited as per expectation for such cinema, has been participating in the discussions on the subjects that these films deal in.

One of the movies that generated a debate was Ajay Bharadwaj’s “Kithe Mil Ve Mahi”. The film very effectively deals with issues related to Dalits in Punjab, a subject that has mostly been swept under the carpet. It depicts what the Dalits who have strived hard and managed to become vocal on the issues related to them, have to say on the socio-political processes in the nation. It has excerpts from interviews of Dalit qawwal BS Balli Paslewale, Dalit poet and convert to Islam Lal Singh Dil and one of the last “heroes” of the Gadar movement Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga. A very strong statement issued in a stoic manner, “Jo log ladte nahin hain, unhe gulam bana liya jaata hai” (Those who do not fight are subject to slavery) underlines the tone and tenor of the movie.

The director has delved into the roots of Sufism as it prevails in the Punjabi culture in modern times. Participating in a talk after the film, famous film maker Sanjay Kak said, “Contrary to the general perception of Sufis being Malangs and disassociated with the social happenings, I want to say that Sufism has been very radical in making strong political statements. This is visible both in Kashmir as well as other parts of the country”.

Another film that dealt with the issue of communal strife and intolerance that have been on the rise in the country over the past two decades was “From Hindu to Hindutva” by Debranjan Sarangi. Shot after the Kandamahal riots, the movie talks about the processes and forces that lead to communal or sectarian polarisation in society.

These processes have been visible at several places, including Gujarat over the past two decades. The director has tried to depict why Dalits and Adivasis were pitted against each other and how religion was used as a potent tool by Right wing forces to foment trouble across the region in which 38 persons were killed while three went missing. The director has asserted that the Indian middle class and its mindset has a major role in the processes of polarisation that are at work in the country.

Yet another film dealing with the contemporary issue of acquisition of land belonging to tribals in the name of development made a mark at the festival. “Andhere se Pehle” by Ajay TG deals with the fight of the tribals against the October 31-25 attempt of the government to “usurp” their land for starting a thermal plant in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

Meaningful cinema that provided good entertainment has also been a part of the festival. In this category “Khargosh” by Paresh Kamdar and “Chutkan ki Mahabharat” were shown and applauded by the audience.

The audience was also treated to an excellent performance by children of Rama Montessori School who presented a play “Akal Badi Ya Sher” that was directed by Anil Kumar.

Haridwar, October 31
People of the pilgrim city today paid tributes to former Prime Minister of India late Indira Gandhi and former Union Cabinet Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel on their death and birth anniversary, respectively. Functions were held in the district by organisations remembering the vital contribution these two leaders had made in paving the way for a resurgent and strong India.

A programme was held at the City Congress office on the Birla Ghat by the Congress wherein, apart from floral tributes, veteran Congressman associated with Indira Gandhi narrated their experiences with her, particularly during her visit to Haridwar in the ’70s.

Terming Indira Gandhi as the Iron Lady of India, former Municipal Chairman Satpal Brahamchari said the world accepted the capability and vision of Indira Gandhi after the Indo-Pak war of 1971 when Bangladesh was liberated from the clutches of Pakistan, as well as the step of nationalisation of banks which made India sustain the repercussions of global economic meltdown witnessed two years back.

OP Chauhan, City Congress Committee chief, said Indira never compromised with development and her slogan “Door drishti-pakka irada” (greater vision-strong commitment) stood applicable in today’s time too. “Indira Gandhi had a soft corner for Haridwar and whenever she faced trouble or political tribulations she used to visit her spiritual guru Maa Anandmayi having a lot of regard for religious-spirituality of this pilgrim city,” said Chauhan.

Organisational secretary BS Tejiyan remarked that she ruled as Prime Minister for 15 years and gave the slogan of “garibi hatao” which connected her to the masses and the Congress rose to power conceptualising a developed India.

Veteran woman party activist and state vice-chief, women cell, Ishwari Devi said Indira showed the world the dexterity as well as capability of women in political arena, taking decisions which were in no way lesser than her male counterparts.

Tributes were also paid to first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India Sardar Vallabhai Patel on his 135th birth anniversary remembering his immense contribution in paving the way for a resurrected India by uniting 500 odd semi-autonomous princely dynasties in one single democratic Indian setup.

Congress party workers as well as social activists also remembered the pivotal role and stature of Sardar Patel hailed as the Iron Man of India. Among those who offered tributes were Shyam Puri, Chaudhari Daljet, Vahavir Ruhila, Naeem Kureshi, Om Prakash Sharma, JP Pandey, Anita Goswami, Manoj Giri, Ambika Pandey, Poonam Bhagat and several others.

Haridwar, October 31
The police today found the body of a 22-year-old boy who had been absconding since October 26. The body of Bobby, a resident of new Haridwar and son of a BHEL employee, was recovered from interior of Bishanpur Kundi by the Jwalapur police team.

The police cracked the case on circumstantial evidences by intensely interrogating deceased’s friend Chandan, who was the last person to have been seen with Bobby on Tuesday afternoon when he left his house.

The police said Chandan called Bobby to a secluded place at Raja Garden, Jagjeetpur, on the pretext that a girl wanted to meet him. He abducted Bobby with the help of Mintu and Rakesh. They called his father from his cell phone and demanded a ransom of Rs 40 lakh. But when they didn’t get a positive response from the other side, they killed him after snatching his chain and bracelet.

Haridwar, October 31
With Diwali just round the corner, black-marketing as well as seizure of adulterated food items seem to have become the norm of the day. Just a day after adulterated “mawa” was seized from Jwalapur, 60 kg of highly adulterated paneer has been confiscated in the city.

A joint team of the Health Department and the police seized a chunk of adulterated material at the Shankaracharya Chowk on Thursday night that was being brought from Saharanpur to deliver in Rishikesh and Haridwar.

According to administrative officials, they had got information that a large amount of adulterated paneer was being supplied from Saharanpur to Rishikesh for the past few days. Taking cognisance of the information, a trap was laid to nab the culprits red-handed.

In this regard, three special joint teams were formed, of which one was stationed at the national highway another at Kankhal route and the third one in the midst of the city.

At the Shankaracharya Chowk on the national highway, near Keshav Ashram, while intense checking of vehicles was going on, the police team found a tempo (UP 11-T 1361) having a huge amount of paneer which on checking was found to be adulterated as it was quite hard.

The driver, Maqbool, tried to flee from the spot, but was nabbed and admitted that the adulterated milk product was being brought from a dairy at Rampur, Saharanpur, through trader Rakesh Arora.

Maqbool, a resident of Saharanpur, also informed that he had brought three drums in the tempo, out of which 30kg of adulterated material was delivered in Roorkee, while the rest of the 60 kg was to be offloaded at Rakesh’s agency in Rishikesh.

SDM Harveer Singh said the administration in view of the festive season of Diwali had intensively started such operations with a detailed investigation being made into this matter. The samples taken have been sent to the laboratory while a case has been registered against the supplier.

This incident has once again put doubts in the mind of people regarding the purity of sweets and dairy products and is bound to have repercussions on the sale of these products in coming days. The others, who carried out the joint raid, were tehsildar Pooran Singh Rana, Chief Food Inspector RS Rawat and Food Inspector Duleep Jain.

Dehradun, October 31
By not taking action against three major sweets and confectionary shops located on the Clock Tower and Rajpur Roads, the samples of which were found to be adulterated, the Health Department has made the entire anti-adulteration drive worthless.

In August the samples from two popular sweets shops and one confectionary shop located opposite to Astley Hall were undertaken and the analytical report procured from Himachal Pradesh Laboratory confirmed high degree of adulteration, but succumbing to pressure from certain quarters, the government has failed to register cases against them.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate (DM) Sachin Kurve said reports of some samples taken from Elloras Bakers (Rajpur Road), Ganpati Sweets (Rajpur Road), Nany’s Bakery and Anchal Milk Cooperative in August were negative.

“We have launched an extensive drive at Asharodi to check the supply of milk and results are encouraging,” said Kurve.

On Saturday again a joint drive was launched by officials of the Municipal Corporation and the Health Department in which 20 samples were collected from five different places.

“We have collected food samples from Royal Sweets located on the Saharanpur Road, samples of mustard oil from Kaveri Departmental Store, petha from Neeraj Sweets, both on the Saharanpur Road, sweets sample from Gulati Sweets and mustard oil samples from RP Industries on the Malviya Road,” said Chief Food Inspector GC Kandwal.

Meanwhile, reports of eight samples collected at Janamashtmi had also confirmed high degree of adulteration and cases would be registered against them.

Medical experts point out that sweets made of milk are bound to be adulterated as there is hardly any check on the supply of milk coming from neighbouring towns of Saharanpur, Moradabad and Meerut that are notorious for synthetic milk supply.

“Synthetic milk has cancerous properties. Urea and caustic soda are harmful to the heart, liver and kidneys. Caustic soda, which contains sodium, acts as slow poison for those suffering from hypertension and heart ailments. Caustic soda also deprives the body from utilising lysine, an essential amino acid in milk, which is required by babies in the womb making it dangerous for pregnant women, foetuses. Alkali destroys proteins and body tissue,” said Dr Ajit Gairola, Joint Director Health.

Several consumers say that the blame lies at the door of the government that has allowed illegal dairies to mushroom.

Dehradun, October 31
Health Department officials and policemen busted a racket of adulterated sauce from Roorkee today. “On specific information we raided a factory at the Sunhara Road, Eidgah Chauraha, where Sudhir Jain and his wife were caught red-handed preparing adulterated sauce. During the raid we found 200 bottles of sauce which were being sold under the brand name of Ruchi vegetable sauce. We also found 200 litres stored in barrels,” said Food Inspector RS Rawat.

Sudhir and his wife have been into this adulterated sauce manufacturing business for long. The culprits were using arrowrot powder, a thickening agent, mixed with unauthorised food colours, disclosed Rawat. Use of arrowroot, rich in carbohydrates, is harmful for the health, he added.

He also said the culprits accepted what they were doing was wrong and pleaded forgiveness. The bottles were broken into pieces and collected samples have been sent to the food laboratory, according to the Food Inspector.

These bottles were being sold to local vendors in the town and nearby places.

Dehradun, October 31
The traditional systems of medicine face greater threat from industrialisation. And if conservation and preservation practices for herbal plants are not adopted, it will be a big loss to ayurveda.

“Herbs are the main ingredients used by ayurvedic and traditional practitioners and unless a systematic effort is made to conserve these, all traditional systems will come to a naught,” said PN Unnikrishnan, chief of the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bangaluru.

While speaking with The Tribune here on Friday, Unnikrishnan said rapid industrialisation together with commercialisation was not only affecting the cultivation of herbs, but the market was also dictating terms so much so that the farmers were being encouraged to grow particular herbs that would benefit the industries only.

“We need to take into account the needs of all stake holders for a holistic promotion of medicinal and aromatic plants in the country,” he stressed. He was in Dehradun today to participate in a workshop on development of protocol on sustainable development organised by the State Medicinal Plant Board.

Unnikrishnan said the purity of herbal medicines sold off the shelf would always be a suspect as the use of preservatives to increase their shelf life for mass consumption affected the potency and quality of drugs. “One must not forget that ayurvedic medicines manufactured by vaidyas were mostly made from home and the scale was also limited. But once we begin to manufacture on a large scale, the use of preservative too will come into play. In the olden times the demand was limited, and as such no preservatives were used. We are even in consultation with the vaidyas whether the use of preservative for increasing the shelf life of the medicine will interfere with the potency and quality of the ayurvedic drug,” he stressed.

Shedding light on the role of Bangaluru-based organisation, he said the organisation was engaged in documenting the practices of ayurveda, unani and siddha. “We have already documented the traditional unani systems of the past 20 years, folk practices, classical practices, their brand of folk medicines prescription, etc. These practices have to be recognised as these face real danger of being lost forever. Classical panchkarma and theories of traditional practitioners have already been documented currently we are working on visha (poison) therapies and treatments for children,” he said.

He added that despite cultivation of herbs, conservation of important species in the wild would continue to be important to maintain purity of species. “Here, too, collection of herbs has to be systematised as there is no methodology and is undertaken in a haphazard manner,” he stressed.

Dehradun, October 31
Chairman of the State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB) Dr Aditya Kumar said panchayats and people could play a bigger role in the conservation of herbs that are nearing extinction.

“We need to scientifically study the plant wealth before us to enhance their utility and a protocol will be developed for their use and conservation,” he stressed.

This was said at a workshop on “Development of Protocol on Sustainable Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants” held under the aegis of the SMPB.

“We have selected 26 species for the purpose of cultivation and more than 18,000 farmers are involved in the aromatic and medicinal plant cultivation,” emphasised Dr Kumar.

Chief Executive Officer of the SMPB GS Pande said, “To document traditional knowledge about medicinal plants and protecting these in their natural habitats, a Global Environment Facility project is under way at the seven biodiversity sites in Uttarakhand.

The Medicinal Plant Conservation Area sites are located at Kandara in Uttarakashi, Khuliya in Pithtoragarh, Jhuni in Bageshwar, Gangi in Tehri, Mandal in Chamoli, Bastiya in Champawat, and Mohan in Almora.

A total of 1,793.60 hectare is under cultivation by the United Nations Development Project. A total of three states have been selected along with Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

On the other hand, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests RBS Rawat laid stressed on adopting cluster approach for cultivation of herbs with participation of people.

While MS Gusain, Project Coordinator, said a protocol would be developed for cultivation of herbs and later field trials would be undertaken.

Pitthoragarh, October 31
The tri-nation fair of Jauljivi which is organised at the confluence of the Kali and Gori rivers at Jauljivi town, about 90 km from here, will be held between November 14 and 19. This was stated by mela officer and SDM of Dharchula Abhishek Tripathi here on Thursday.

The mela officer, who talked to this correspondent after a meeting called in connection with the mela preparations and held at the district level, also said besides reserving a big piece of land for the traditional craftsmen of the Darma, Vyans and Chaudas valleys the mela would also organise and developmental exhibition under which the stalls from various government department displaying advance technology in agriculture and other spheres of village life would be put up. “Besides, this a stage for conduction folk culture programmes will also be erected to give a chance to local cultural artistes and other troupes coming from outside to present their folk art and other items,” said the SDM.

The Jauljivi fair sees participation by people from India and Nepal, as a mere bridge across the Kali distances Nepal from here, and by people of Tibet though indirectly, as the wool and other goods collected by Indian traders during four months of Indo-Tibet trade are the main goods displayed during the fair.

“During the mela period, the Pitthoragarh roadways depot will ply three special buses from Pitthoragarh to Jauljivi. Besides, an 108 emergency vehicle as well as a health camp facilities will be available at the mela for which all arrangements will have to be completed by November 12,” said the SDM.

Dehradun October 31
Reacting to the casual attitude of the state government for neglecting the Gorkha community in Uttarakhand, agitators of the Gorkhali Sudhar Sabha (GSS) staged a dharna at the Gandhi Park here yesterday.

Protesters gathered to raise slogans in favour of their demand and took out a rally in the city. The Gorkha community demanded providing Nepali language the status of a state language like Kumaoni, Garhwali and Jaunsari as aforesaid in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, August 20, 1992.

Dehradun, October 31
Former Joint Director Uma Prakash, who was recently given marching orders by Uttaranchal State AIDS Control Society (USACS), has now taken recourse to the Right to Information.

In her application, she has sought information and documents which have led to her sacking. She was sacked after Additional Project Director PC Kapri of USACS indicted her in his report. USACS was forced to initiate an inquiry after it’s awareness programme run through the Red Ribbon train earned the wrath of Hindu groups in Haridwar.

It is believed that USACS’ much-touted awareness has used Hindu reverential mythological characters to convey the message of preventive measures for AIDS.

Besides, questions are also being raised about the manner in which the inquiry was conducted and that some top bosses should have also been removed as awareness programme was given a go-ahead at the top level.

Dehradun, October 31
In a new diatribe against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-led Centre, the state BJP today accused the Centre of delaying the withdrawal of ban on quarrying from Dehradun. The BJP Panchayati Raj cell today defied the Centre’s ban by lifting sand and gravel from the Song riverbed in the Raipur area.

BJP Panchayati Raj cell president Digambar Singh Negi reached the Song river banks and resorted to symbolic lifting of sand and 
gravel as part of “Khanan Satyagraha” and blamed the UPA for a ban on quarrying in the state.

“The ban on mining had resulted in phenomenal increase in the prices of gravel and sand in Dehradun and both these materials are coming from outside the state putting unnecessary burden on people of the state,” said Negi. He said constructing a house had almost become impossible in Dehradun due to rise in prices of sand and gravel and other construction materials linked to the rivers.

He also attributed recent floods to the ban on mining on the riverbeds. He said a large deposition of sand and gravels had resulted in flooding in the rivers during the recent rains. It had even forced rivers to change course leading to inundation of several of localities in Dehradun.

He said Maldevta, Kesarwala, Raipur Khadar and Soda Sarolee alongside the Song river, Sundarwala, Harrawala, Sainik Colony and Kunwawala, alongside the Dulhani river, Ishwar Vihar, Shivlok, Vani Vihar alongside river Tapowan, Chanderroad Basti, Shanti Vihar, Bahgat Singh Colony alongside the Rispana river and Sapera Basti and Mangal Basti alongside the Aamwala river bore brunt of floods which was caused due to a large deposition of sand and gravel in these rivers.

The BJP leaders also raised the issue of people who lost their jobs due to the ban. They said labourers, truck drivers and other traders associated with mining had lost their jobs due to the ban. The protesters also demanded providing authority to panchayats from the conduct of mining activity.

Dehradun, October 31
The All-India Mahila Congress as part of a public campaign held a health camp in the Mehuwala region of Dehradun. Inaugurating the campaign, Manorama Dobriyal Sharma, National General

Secretary of the Congress and former Dehradun Mayor, disclosed that the Loktantra Abhiyan was aimed to bring better health and other infrastructure services to slum areas of the country. She also called for frequent staging of health camps in slum dwellings. Manorama also expressed gratitude to the doctors for their contribution in the staging of the camp.

Earlier, a portrait of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was garlanded by Manorama. Surgeon Manish Anand, eye specialist Yogembar Barthwal, skin specialist Tarun Mittal, Alok Jain, physician R Yadav, child specialist DP Joshi participated in the camp, whichalso witnessed free distribution of medicines.

Nainital, October 31
In an exercise conducted by the Forest Department in coordination with the police, officials have unearthed a huge cache of animal body parts from various locations in the region.

The officials have reportedly nabbed 10 accused, while a dozen others have been rounded up for interrogation under the exercise that has been named the Operation Arundhati.

The officials had constituted several teams that launched searches yesterday in Haldwani, Rudrapur, Kitcha, Khatima, Tanakpur, Kashipur, Banbasa, Jaspur, Ramnagar, Bailpadav and Bannakhera. The searches were carried out at 37 places.

The most important haul was from Haldwani, where the officials claim to have recovered the body parts of crocodiles, jackals, owls, stags, porcupines and bats. These recoveries were made from migratory groups of people who move around in search of labour.

Such recoveries are learnt to have been made from other places also. This is said to be one of the biggest recoveries in the history of the state.

The body parts of various animals are in demand for performing various occult practices in the region. These parts fetch very good prices from people indulging in such practices.