Dehradun, November 26
Uttarakhand State Education Secretary Manisha Panwar today sought active cooperation of private schools in the state in general and Dehradun in particular for making Right to Education Act, which would be implemented from April 1 next year, a success.

Manisha was speaking as a chief guest at the annual prize distribution function of DAV (PG) College Alumni Association.

The state government was in the process of determining “catchment” areas in the state for primary and middle schools.

The idea behind the concept of the “catchment” area was that no child would have to walk more than a km for studying in a primary school and not more than 3 km in a middle school.

Rules under the RTE Act were in the final stages of finalisation and would soon be notified. Alumni association president Raj Kanwar said the association was actively engaged in promoting excellence in senior schools and had organised an essay competition on “Is caste system good for India?” The subject generated much debate and the entries received were of very high quality.

Raj said he would welcome feasible suggestions for the improvement of the college from groups and individuals and assured that the association within its limited resources would extend all possible help in bringing back some of the lost glory of the college.

According to general secretary RK Bakhshi, Aman Chaudhary of Kasiga School topped the essay contest and received the first prize of Rs 5,000. Two students, Kritarth Pant of Scholars Home and Himani Punj of Hilton’s School, jointly came second and received a cash prize Rs 2,000 each. Shubham Nawani of Raja Rammohan Roy Academy won the third prize of Rs 1,000. Bakhhi also announced the names of two toppers each from 16 schools, who were awarded special medals. Manisha presented the prizes to the winners.

Rudraprayag, November 26
The Centre should relax the norms for establishment of hospitals in the hill areas under the National Rural Health Mission. This was emphasised by Kedarnath MLA and Parliamentary Secretary, Public Works Department, Asha Nautiyal, who was chief guest on the second day of the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign organised by Press Information Bureau, Government of India, at Ratura in Rudraprayag district today.

She said as per the norms, a hospital could be established in an area with a population of 30,000, which was not possible in the hill areas. She told that the emergency service 108, run by the state government, was a big success providing maximum relief to the villagers.

She appealed to the people to take maximum benefits from the Right to Information Act. She also detailed the works being carried out under the MNREGP in the area. Asha told that Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan covered all villagers and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme was being run for the junior schoolchildren after its successful implementation in the primary schools.

Later, Irrigation and Social Welfare Minister Matbar Singh Kandari, while distributing cheques to the beneficiaries of various schemes implemented by the department, said the state government was providing the facility of pensions to all disabled persons, widows and the aged. The minister distributed 300 cheques amounting to Rs 7,53,600 to 28 disabled persons, 21 widows and 251 old-age persons.

PIB Deputy Director Prakash Thapliyal said the objective of the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign was to provide a common platform to the people where they could be informed about the policies and schemes of the government and to get their suggestions and reactions about the schemes with a view to make improvements.

The stalls put up by the various departments at the public information fair conveyed about the schemes being implemented by the government. Artists from the song and drama division presented an impressive cultural programme on the occasion.

Dehradun, November 26
Taking a revolutionary step, Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam (UJVNL) has decided to revive 10 of its small hydro-power projects (SHPs), which had been closed for various reasons.

These structures are standing non-operational without being maintained after their closure. Some are as old as the Bageshwar project, which was closed in 1966, and as fresh case as the Tilwara hydro-power project, which was closed in 2009.

Newly appointed Managing Director, UJVNL, GP Patel, said: “It is a logical step which the we have taken to resuscitate these dead ventures to add power capacity, in the power starved state.

Each project will be minutely scrutinised and checked for the reason responsible for its closure. Instead of repairing these, we will change the defunct machinery or infrastructure so that these projects can add significant value in power generation for the coming 35 years, a period designated for a healthy project to run its age.”

General Manager, SHP, Arvind Kumar said after due assessment of the damage and requirement, a detailed project report would be placed before the board before forwarding it to the state government for approval.

The unit-1 of the Bageshwar project which was closed in 1966 and unit II which was closed in 1986, were generating 50 KW. Commissioned in 1965, the projects badly needed major repairs for its civil structures and electrical/mechanical equipment.

The Bhatwari project, stationed at Uttarkashi, with a capacity of 50 KW, was commissioned in 1970 and closed in 1989 as its intake system got badly damaged. Power channel (1,500 m long) is damaged up to 50 per cent.

The status of penstock (big pipe) and power house colony have also been shown damaged/stolen. Electrical/mechanical equipment require major repairs.

The third one, the Devprayag project of 50 KW capacity situated at Pauri was commissioned in 1970 and had to be closed in 1985 because of the massive damage to its water conductor system. No machines (turbine/generator) are available now for these old machines. Associated equipment are said to be in damaged condition as well.

The Dharchula project in Pitthoragarh of 200 KW capacity, which began functioning in 1977, remained in operation for 11 years.

The reasons cited have been disclosed as closure of power house due to unavailability of water, and cess was also being charged by the Irrigation Department for providing water through the channel.

Nainital-based Durgapur project of 1150 KW capacity was launched in 1922. The project was closed in 1988 due to unavailability of water in the Naintal lake.

Moreover, the penstock got buried and was in damaged condition which could not be replaced as well due to wide spread presence of residential colonies and road built over the penstock.

The unavailability of water were responsible for the closure for the Gantishira project (200 KW) at Pauri, which was commissioned in 1969 and closed in 1985. The Tilwara project (200 KW), based at Rudraprayag, was started in 1966 and closed in 2009.

The Gauri project (200 KW), stationed at Champawat, got operational in 1999 and closed in 2007. Sources at the UJVNL said when the projects were commissioned, there were abundance of water in the canal which went on depleting with the time.

In case of Tilwara project, villagers too played spoilsport as they deviated the direction of the lake many times to irrigate their own crops. Water conductor system and machines too got damaged beyond repair in case of the Gaintishira project.

Increased capital investment made the Kalsa project (300 KW) based in Pitthoragarh unviable, whereas the Koti project (200 KW) in Uttarkashi was closed as the development of settlement zone in water conductor system was incurring increased capital investment making this unviable as well.

Nainital, November 26
To make travelling and transportation across the region convenient and user friendly, the Kumaon administration has initiated some steps.

In a meeting held yesterday in Nainital under the chairmanship of Kumaon Commissioner Kunal Sharma, a series of decisions were taken in this regard. According to information, it has been decided to issue permits for plying vehicles on 400 smaller and bigger routes in the region. Although a mere formality, the State Roadways Corporation has been formally allowed to run the buses that have been procured under the Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. Though the same department has been managing this fleet of buses for almost a year, a formal stamp of approval was required.

It was decided in the meeting that while issuing permits for running of the private buses in the region, priority would be given to the handicapped persons and the widows of servicemen. It was also decided to issue permits for running of three wheelers on about 50 roads in the plain areas of the region.

The decision regarding management of 300 more vehicles on various routes, along with several other issues, has been deferred till the next meeting. The issue of transfer of permits to the next of the kin of the dead holders and those abandoning the trade was taken up. Another important decision taken at the meeting was not to allow plying of heavy vehicles on the Pithoragarh-Dharchula road, since the road is not in a condition to take the load of heavy vehicles.

Meanwhile in a related development, the Transport Department officials swooped upon a private bus in Rudrapur, which was being used to transport passengers without relevant permit. Action has been taken against the bus owner for trying to cause loss to the state exchequer by illegally ferrying these passengers.

Nainital, November 26
Gram Pradhans of villages around Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar district have handed over a nine-point charter of demands to the state government demanding that the issues related to relief and rehabilitation following the recent rain-related disaster in their areas be resolved at the earliest.

The Pradhans have once again brought to focus the issues of the failure of the government to improve the conditions of the roads which are a nightmare to drive on.

They have also alleged that flood-affected people have still not got any relief that they should have got at least by now.

The agitators, in a charter addressed to the Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank have pointed that there are several roads that need to be properly repaired and widened. They have also demanded that the flood-affected families be rehabilitated on lands that are free from any sort of litigation.

Their other demands include increase in the foodgrain quota of the Below Poverty Line families (BPL) under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and making public the details of the relief provided to the flood-affected people from the region.

While staging a dharna at the tehsil headquarters on Thursday, they threatened to intensify their agitation if their demands were not met at the earliest.

Dehradun, November 26
Even after 35 days, the police authorities have been unable to give any clue on whereabouts of a final year student of BTech, IIT-Roorkee, Deepesh, who went missing from the institute on October 22.

Dehradun, November 26
The Uttrakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) is hopeful of achieving its target of reducing aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses from 29.41 per cent to 25 per cent in next three months.

Sources at UPCL said they had taken stringent steps to improve metering, meter reading, billing and revenue collection process through revenue-cycle management, leading to reduced AT&C losses.

Director Jagmohan Lal said by controlling the pilferage, the corporation could straightway earn an additional revenue of 250 crore. “We have been working continuously in this direction. The distribution losses were reduced from 33 to 28 per cent in 2008-09 to 26 per cent in 2009-10 itself.”

With a unique technology of preparing consumer indexing (complete profile) under R-APDRP (restructured, accelerated power development and reforms program) and tagging of feeders and DTs (distribution transformer) technology, the department is hopeful to facilitate energy accounting as well.

The department has met the targets more than halfway through, such as of replacement of 2,00,000 defective (IDF) and electro-mechanical meters with high-precision electronic meters. Meters of three phase domestic and non-domestic consumers are being shifted outside their premises on the adjoining poles/boundaries depending on feasibility.

The corporation has set a target of 1 lakh pole-mounted metering of 11 KV and 33 KV to industrial consumers, 20,000 three phase connection to domestic and non-domestic consumers on their poles or outside their boundaries till 2011. For March 2012, UPCL has further extended its target of providing technical feasibility to 50,000 customers and further cover 30,000 by 2013.

It is also undertaking integrated centralised-billing system for 6,000 high-value HT/LT consumers with automatic meter reading through GSM. Replacement of 1,300 km of bare Lt conductors with Aerial Bunched Cable (ABC) in the theft-prone areas is under operation. Conversion of single phase to three-phase lines is going on. High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS), especially in the rural belt, are being mounted in the theft-prone areas. Complete study and checking of metering equipments of all high-value consumers is also being done. 

Dehradun, November 26
The ICFAI University celebrated the National Law Day with the presence of the Justice (Retd) MM Ghildiyal, the Lokayukta (ombudsman) of Uttarakhand. The theme for this year’s function was “Do judges make law?”

The ceremony commenced with the introduction given by the Director of the Law Faculty, (Prof) Dr B Kumar, where he threw light on the achievements and contributions of the Justice Ghildiyal.

On the occasion, Dr Kumar emphasised on the point that judges, normally and particularly, in generic sense cannot make law. The law-making power is vested with the Legislature or Parliament. Though a number of philosophers had said judges only declared the existing law, Dr Kumar quoted the case of Rajeshwar Prasad Vs. the state of West Bengal. in the case, Hidyatullah J had stated that no doubt the law declared by the Supreme Court binded on the other courts in India, it should be remembered that this court did not enact. Dr Kumar further said in narrow sense judges were making law through interpretations. If the provisions of the particular act were ambiguous and legislation was unclear then the role of the courts was to interpret the existing legislation. In such situations, the court played a creative role.

Dehradun, November 26
Bus services from Dehradun were disputed when the drivers and conductors took to street at the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) in Dehradun in opposition to alleged manhandling over their colleague by the Asha Road Chowki Police officials at the Uttarakhand-UP border.

Some of the police officials at the chowki had an altercation with a driver and conductor of a UP Roadways Bus.

The altercation soon turned worse as the policemen roughed up the driver and conductor. This infuriated the roadways drivers and conductors.

Soon other drivers and conductors from the roadways present at ISBT joined the protest. They staged a dharna and blocked the bus movement from the ISBT, the only bus terminus for places outside Dehradun.

Passengers had a harrowing time at ISBT as the bus movements were completely blocked during the evening, its peak time. Most of the buses leave from Dehradun to Delhi and other far off places during evening.

The administration has been trying to resolve the dead lock and talks are on with the agitating the roadways bus drivers and conductors. 

Haridwar, November 26
While allopathic, homoeopathic, ayurvedic, yunani forms of medical remedies are quite popular in India but one of the oldest and harmless is ‘Marma Chikista’, Marma medical therapy. It is based on the various points in our body.

Participants at a workshop on Marma medical therapy held at Haridwar on Thursday. A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, November 26
The Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and Health Sciences will organise a two-day symposium on ‘New inventions in Neuro Sciences’ on November 29 and 30. Several renowned Biomedical scientists and doctors will be present at the symposium to present their views on the topic.

While informing the mediapersons NK Singh, Principal of the institute, said diseases related to brain, its symptoms and its treatments would be discussed in the symposium.