Dehradun, January 7
The ice-skating and the skiing players of the foreign teams, which have already reached Dehradun for the SAF Winter Games, couldn’t practice today for a lack of preparations on the part of the organisers.

However, sources in the organising committee said since the National Open Skiing Championship was under way at Auli, it was not possible for the teams like Pakistan that were taking part only in the skiing event to practice there.

The 27-member contingent of the Pakistan team had yesterday said that they would like to leave for Auli for practice on Friday morning.

On the other hand, teams of Nepal and the Maldives were seen moving around the ice-skating rink of the Maharana Pratap Sports College, Raipur. They couldn’t practice because the ice-skating rink was not ready yet.

“Yes we want to practice but we haven’t been given the schedule by the organizers yet,” said an official of the Maldives team, Deempa. It may be mentioned here that the ice-skating events of the SAF Winter Games will begin from January 10. The foreign teams reached here a few days early in order to practice for the event.

Dehradun, January 7
The banned drug diclofenac could have been the reason behind the death of black rump vultures in the Jim Corbett National Park on December 25. The incident was followed by the death of Himalayan griffon vultures at Hathidungar on January 1. This area is situated close to the park. The incident had sent strong signals to conservationists as the vultures as scavengers held much importance in the eco system of a forest. It was felt that all was not well in the Corbett National Park region. The samples of the vulture carcasses were subsequently sent to the Pinjore-situated Vulture Breeding Centre to know of the exact reasons behind their deaths.

The Vulture Breeding Centre, Pinjore, Haryana, in its report has mentioned visceral gout as the reason behind the death of black rump vultures, and the role of diclofenac in visceral gout is certainly a big possibility.

Dr Rajeev Singh, a veterinary officer at Ramnagar, who had treated two of the deceased vultures, said diclofenac could be a reason behind the occurrence of visceral gout in the black rump vultures. He said he was now anxiously awaiting Pinjore-situated centre’s report into the death of the Himalayan griffon vultures, as this would further clear the picture.

Interestingly, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac had been widely used to treat pain, fever and inflammation in livestock across the country some time back. Vultures ingested diclofenac when scavenging on the carcasses of the livestock that had been treated shortly before death, thus leading to a decline in their population. While diclofenac has been banned in the country for usage in the treatment of animals, it is still used for human treatment purposes. The quacks, in particular put diclofenace to rampant usage for human treatment, the drug being a cheap medicinal substance.

The last census of avian fauna in Uttarakhand had recorded just six vultures in the Ramnagar forest division, while the Terai forest division close to Ramnagar registered only 74 vultures. The number was among the lowest registrations of vulture count in the forest divisions of the state.

Dehradun: A simple plastic card has made access to better health care easy for people belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society.

Under the National Health Insurance scheme or Rashtriya Swasthya Beema Yojana (RSBY), the Centre contributes 75 per cent of the expenditure while the state government funds the rest. As many as 18,030 cards have been distributed in Dehradun and 36,011 in Udham Singh Nagar under the scheme, which would be renewed every year.

The scheme has brought into play the private insurance companies in the health sector in a big way. What necessitated such a move?

We are leveraging what is good and delivering a health scheme through public-private partnership. The National Health Insurance Scheme is guided by a marketing strategy to optimise delivery. For the first time the poor (BPL category) of the country have become beneficiaries of a health scheme which allows them to access best possible treatment and procedures with the help of a plastic card that covers hospital treatment expenses up to Rs 30,000. The insurance companies too have realised that the needs of this section of the society have to be catered to.

Several countries are eager to follow India’s example. Are you satisfied with the way the scheme is being implemented?

Many countries, including Maldives, Pakistan, Indonesia and Ghana, have shown interest in the scheme and Maldives would soon be implementing a variant of our own scheme.

Let me assert that we are still learning and we still need to improve in several areas, mostly in improving the quality of services being offered in the hospitals. We have to still evolve a parameter of offering qualitative services. At another level, capacity building is a vital area that needs to be strengthened because as the yojana expands, we would need more trained manpower. As of now 22 million cards have been issued and 80 million people are direct beneficiaries of the scheme. Now, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) beneficiaries who had worked for 15 days or more during the previous year would also be brought into the ambit of the scheme.

Despite the best efforts, there have been instances of inflated billing being carried by private hospitals. How will you be able to arrest this malpractice?

By maintaining repeated checks and evaluations we hope to have an upper hand. We de-empanelled around 54 hospitals that were involved in fraudulent practices and presenting inflated bills to make a quick buck.

Are you satisfied with the way the scheme is being implemented in Uttarakhand?

Despite making a slow start, Uttarakhand now stands among the best performing states. The programme would now be extended to the districts of Haridwar, Tehri, Rudraprayag, Pauri and Nainital.

Dehradun, January 7
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva has said that the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) University must lay emphasis on the creation of an environment that nurtures innovation, talent, excellence and service. It should aim to acquire a place in the top 10 list of medical universities in the country by 2020.

Delivering her address as chief guest after inaugurating a building of the Himalayan College of Nursing of the HIHT University at the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences at Jolly Grant here today, the Governor said, "I call upon members of the management, faculty, students and staff of HIHT to see themselves as being part of a great enterprise of fundamental change that lays emphasis on creating an environment that nurtures innovation, talent and excellence.

“We should aim at nothing less than making HIHT one of the 10 best medical universities in the country by 2020."

Emphasising on the need to revamp medical education to adapt it to contemporary needs and realities, the Governor said, "The need of the hour is to produce nursing professionals who address health not only from the perspective of the individual patient or their own career advancement plan but also as part of a team integrated into the larger health system."

On the occasion, the Governor lamented that while on one hand, the doctor-nurse ratio was appalling, on the other, medical professionals were reluctant to go out to remote areas in the state because of adverse geographical and climatic conditions.

The Governor also paid rich tributes to HIHT founder Swami Rama.

Earlier, the Governor inaugurated the new building complex of the Himalayan College of Nursing by unveiling a marble plaque and cutting the ceremonial red ribbon.

Accompanied by Vijay Dhasmana, Vice-Chancellor of HIHT University and member, presidential body, and Dr Renu Dhasmana, Director of Nursing Education and Nursing Service at Himalayan College of Nursing, the Governor went around the newly built laboratories, classrooms and model nursing wards.

Students presented a variety entertainment programme that included a Garhwali dance and a bhangra performance. Vijay Dhasmana delivered the welcome address while Dr Vijendra Chauhan of the university proposed the vote of thanks.

HIHT's adviser (health) Dr B Upadhyay, Uttarakhand's Health Adviser Dr RK Jain, Nursing College Principal, HIHT faculty members, officials and employees, ADC to the Governor Major PPR Chaudhary and a large number of nursing college students were also present on the occasion.

Dehradun, January 7
Graphic Era University celebrated placement of 643 students of the institute at a cultural function here today. Students presented cultural items and credited their success to teachers.

In the two-day placement drive, Infosys selected 300 students from B.Tech and MCA courses on an annual package of Rs 3.25 to 3.50 lakh.

IBM hired 50 students, HCL 67, Infogain 15, Wipro 22, TCS 6 and Adsys recruited 33 while 87 students got placements in reputed companies such as Simplex Inf, Somany Tiles, Smart Chip, Axix Bank, SBI Life, JSPL, Franconnect etc.

President of Graphic Era University, Prof Kamal Ghanshala, attributed the success to the hardwork, sincerity and integrity of the students as well as the faculty. He said success is based on teamwork.

Pithoragarh, January 7
In a thrilling final played between the teams of the Late Vijay Joshi Town Volleyball Association, Almora, and the Uttarakhand Police, the state cops emerged victorious 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 in the State Invitation Open Volleyball Championship here today.

The competition, organised by the Sports Directorate, Uttarakhand, was played at the DS Bisht Ground, Pithoragarh, and managed by the District Sports Office and Sports Promotion Committee at the district level.

“The winners were awarded Rs 15,000 and the runners-up were given Rs 10,000 by the Pithoragarh District Sports Promotion Committee in addition to the trophies and citations,” said Vinod Singh Valdiya, District Sports Officer, Pithoragarh.

The valedictory function was chaired by Rajendra Singh Rawat, Chairman, Nagar Palika Parishad, Pithoragarh, who also gave away the prizes. Twelve teams from all over the state participated in the three-day competition.

Dehradun, January 7
Amarjit’s lone goal took Doon Hawks to a 1-0 win over Indian Council Forest Research Education (ICFRE) in the District Hockey League Championship at Shri Guru Nanak Public (SGNP) Boys Inter College here today. Amarjit scored the winner in the 54th minute.

The winning team got three penalty corners while ICFRE got six of these, but the latter couldn’t do much with these.

The hosts will meet St Agnes in another league match here tomorrow. The SGNP has reached the semifinal in the tournament.

Dehradun, January 7
Doon Star were declared the winners of the third quarterfinal match by the organising committee after they lodged an objection against Sunderwala Boys in the Great Vivekanand Memorial Football Tournament held on the Pavilion Ground here today.

The match in the stipulated time was won by Sunderwala Boys by 1-0 with the lone goal by Shasant Mamgai struck in the 41st minute.

Rahul Rawat, secretary of Sarvagun Society said after the match Doon Star informed the committee that Mamgai was registered with the Garhwal Sporting team and had played for that team in the league matches.

The committee, as per its policy, held that the objection was right and declared Doon Star the winners. With this win, Doon Star has entered the semifinal.