The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Election to 15th Tibetan Parliament 65 per cent polling in Doon Neena Sharma Tribune News Service Dehradun, March 21 Over 65 per cent polling was reported in the final round of the election held here to elect the Kalon Tripa and members of the 15th Tibetan Parliament, said Tibetan Welfare Officer Gyaltsen. A total of 2,606 Tibetans living in exile in Dehradun, Mussoorie, Saharanpur and Haridwar cast their ballots in the final round yesterday and the counting began at Dekyling (Tibetan settlement) today. “Out of 3,900 registered voters, 2,606 cast their votes and the counting ended late afternoon. We do not have electronic voting machines,” said Gyaltsen. The Tibetan Government-in-exile headquartered at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh will formally declare the results in April and later the 15th Parliament will be sworn in. Lobsang Singe, one of the top contenders for the post of Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, seems to have found favour among the youth, though most of the Tibetans were reluctant to speak openly about their preferences. “The ballot is confidential, but most of the youngsters seemed to prefer Lobsang Singe who is in his early 40s,” said Tsering Yangzon. Singe is pitted against Tenzin T Namgyal and Tashi Wangdu. All the three candidates are contesting for the top post of Kalon Tripa or the post of chief executive of the Tibetan Government-in-exile. As many as 83,399 Tibetans settled in India, Nepal, Bhutan, the United States, European countries, Australia, Japan, Russia and other countries were eligible to exercise their franchise to elect their Prime Minister and 43 members of Tibetan Parliament in exile. “The election for the chief executive of the Tibetan Government-in-exile and Tibetan Parliament is a historic one. The new Tibetan Government will be a significant step forward in a long reform process envisioned by the Dalai Lama in Tibet and realised while in exile,” said Tenzin, Secretary, Tibetan Welfare Office.
	Natural changes at Corbett have experts concerned * The huge tract of grasslands, which was visible from the Dhikala Guest House, today stands replaced by silt brought down by prolonged monsoon last year * Unbridled growth of resorts at the tip of the park Rajeev Khanna Tribune News Service Nainital, March 21 One of the biggest tiger reserves in the world, the Jim Corbett National Park has witnessed certain natural changes in the recent past that have resulted in large-scale ramifications. Besides the noted environmentalists, guides, tour operators and those working with the park establishment are expressing their concerns based on their wisdom and experience. To begin with, the rain-related disaster that had hit the region during the prolonged monsoon last year has brought massive changes in the very landscape of the forest area. For example, the huge tract of grasslands, which was visible from the Dhikala Guest House, has been replaced by silt. It was one point where it was very easy to spot elephants in large numbers and even tigers. The most important issue that stands as a challenge before the authorities managing the forest reserve is to maintain the traditional food chain in the area. The patches of grasslands where tigers normally hide before they hunt have very little grass on them. The forest guides say there is even a dearth of elephant grass in certain patches and the obnoxious weed lantana is spreading on a large scale. All this has led to the tigers and elephants moving outside their territories. Talking to The Tribune, the famous Bedi brothers, Naresh Bedi and Rajesh Bedi, expressed their concern over the changes that have taken place in the area. “We have been coming here since the ’60s and things are changing at a fast pace,” they pointed out. They are in the park once again making a film on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the park. They are perhaps the filmmakers to have captured on camera the mating of tigers very close to the Bijrani Guest House last Thursday. A senior member of the judiciary also expressed his concern on the unbridled growth of resorts at the tip of the park. These resorts are quite often the venue of parties where loud music is played and firecrackers are exploded. One can imagine the reaction of wild animals towards this phenomenon. He said the resorts should not be there at all and must be relocated along with the village of Sunderkhal, which has become a theatre of man-animal conflict. A former director of the park had very candidly admitted to this reporter that the resorts were initially seen as a solution to the reduction of guest pressure on Dhikala Guest House, but these have now become a Frankenstein monster. World’s top biologist George Schellar made no bones about the need to conserve the forest at all costs. “The only thing that has to be done is protect, protect and protect,” he said while appreciating that the park still retains a large number of the “beautiful animal”. Reacting to a query on the issue of man-animal conflict and the encroachments by humans inside the forests, he made a very strong statement: “If people living on the streets are to be provided home, you do not rehabilitate them in the Taj Mahal”.
	Purnagiri fair kicks off Our Correspondent Pitthoragarh, March 21 Uttarakhand Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant inaugurated the three-month Purnagiri fair in the Tanakpur area of Champawat district today. “We have done elaborated arrangements for this fair and for the first time in the history of this fair, pilgrims will get facilities provided by the Champawat District Administration this year, as the Champawat Zila Panchayat has limited means at its disposal,” said JC Kandpal, Mela Magistrate. The streets of Tanakpur, a sleepy town of the eastern Terai region, have come to life with the inauguration of the fair. Groups of devotees chanting “Jai Mata di” have started coming to the town. These devotees started thronging to the town in the first fortnight of March. The entire town of Tanakpur will be filled by devotees by the mid-April and its streets will reverberate with the chanting of the “jaikara” of Goddess Purnagiri, who is supposed to have been residing since eternity at the top of the Annapurna hill on the banks of the Kali river. The temple is situated at an altitude of 3,000 feet and is 20 km from Tanakpur. According to the legend, when Lord Shiva, in a stunned state, was travelling in the universe with his wife Parvati’s body after she burnt herself at the yagyashala of her father Daksh Parjapati at Kankhal when she could not tolerate the insult of her husband, the navel fell on the hilltop. Since then, people are celebrating the presence of the goddess over there. Before the Chaitra Navratras, the 16-km path between Tanakpur and Tunnas witnesses the arrival of lakhs of pilgrims from across western UP, Haryana and Delhi. “We have not only arranged 20 jeeps, which will ply between Thuligar and Bhairav Mandir, for pilgrims, but also deputed 120 Constables, 15 Sub-Inspectors, 50 jawans of the PRD, 60 of the Home Guards, one company of the PAC, two companies of the women’s PAC and one platoon of the Jal police on mela duty,” said PS Sailal, Superintendent of Police, Champawat. “Before 1980, Purnagiri was the name of a local goddess worshipped by devotees from Kali Kumaon and Nepal, but after the Sikh militancy caused the migration of Hindus from Punjab and they started thronging to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, Hindu devotees from western UP started visiting this temple,” said Dinesh Pandey, a senior journalist from Champawat district. After 1980 the then Zila Panchayat of Pitthoragarh gave attention to this neglected fair and constructed a metalled road up to the Bhairav temple, set up the potable water facilities at the mela spot and built stairs up to the main temple. “After these facilities had been put in place, the number of pilgrims swelled and has reached up to more than 10 lakh,” said Mohan Rajput, a local resident. The 87-day fair is being organised by the Zila Panchayat and the District Administration jointly this time. Zila Panchayat Chairperson Prema Pandey complains of financial constraints to conduct the fair smoothly. “We have demanded Rs 30 lakh from the state government this year to manage this fair, but we are not likely to receive the amount in the absence of which the pilgrims are bound to face difficulties,” she said. “Last year, Rs 10 lakh was sanctioned by the government in comparison to Rs 29 lakh during 2006-07 and Rs 27 lakh during 2007-08. This year we have estimated an expenditure of Rs 55 lakh,” she said. Earlier, devotees used to have darshan of the goddess from a distance of 200 m, as the temple was situated on a dangerous peak, which has now been connected by stairs. Some daring devotees would reach the peak by gripping the long grass called “babila”. They would tie the grass seeking the fulfilment of their wishes and untie it after these were fulfilled. This tradition is still continuing, but people now tie cotton cloth on the railings on the stairs, said PD Pant, who has visited the temple even before 1980. “To prevent incidents of fire and stampede, a distance of 2 metre is being maintained between the devotees and the idol of the goddess this year,” said Kandpal. Every year on the first day of the Chaitra Navratras, the priest of the temple is replaced and on the same day the flag at the top of a hill is also replaced. The trains reaching Tanakpur are packed with pilgrims from Aligarh, Agra, Shahjanpur, Bareilly, Meerut, Badaun, Delhi and parts of Haryana. “We have come on bicycles all the way from Badaun because the more pain you suffer during the pilgrimage, the sooner you see your wishes fulfilled,” said Aman Pandey, a pilgrim who was accompanied by five of his friends.
	Minister for speeding up development works in Jaunpur Our Correspondent Mussoorie, March 21 At a meeting held here today on the issue of boosting development in Jaunpur Block, Disaster Management and Sports Minister Khajan Das expressed unhappiness with the officials who had come to the meeting without doing their homework. The agenda of the meeting was to find ways to speed up construction work on the Kimoi-Masrana Road project in Jaunpur Block. The pace of the project has been hit due delay in the clearance from the Forest Department. The minister said the road would connect a large part of area, comprising remote villages, but the work had been hanging fire for the past four years due to the bottlenecks created by the Forest Department. He also directed the officials to remove the stumbling blocks and expedite the project on a priority basis. Das said the departments should prepare the proposal in such a way that the projects were cleared in the first go and were not returned to the authorities concerned with objections. Mussoorie MLA Jot Singh Gunsola said a part of the road fell under the Mussoorie Assembly segment and the project was lying dormant due to a lack of understanding between the departments concerned, the Forest and the PWD. This should be avoided at any cost. Das said another meeting in this regard would be held around April 15 in Dehradun where the nodal officer of the Ministry of Environment would also be present along with the District Magistrate, Dehradun. He strictly directed the officials that they should be present at the meeting with complete information and any callousness on their part would not be tolerated. Das also enquired about the progress on the Bhilaru stadium project in Mussoorie. The President of the Mussoorie Municipal Council said soon the land of the stadium project would be transferred to the MC and hopefully construction work would begin at the earliest. Later, speaking to the media, Khajan Das said the nodal officer of the Ministry of Environment would be sitting in his Dehradun office for 15 days which was good news as the environmental issues could be addressed in Dehradun itself, thus avoiding unnecessary delay in the implementation of various projects. He said the Chief Minister had raised the issue of rehabilitating villagers and easing the guidelines on disaster management at a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held on October 6. Moreover, the state government had suggested that the Centre should provide non-forest land elsewhere in the state for the rehabilitation of people. Former President of the MC Manmohan Singh Mall, BJP chief Roop Singh Kathait and others were also present.
	Five-day training for ASHA workers begins Our Correspondent Mussoorie, March 21 A five-day training programme for 30 ASHA workers on home-based neo-natal care (HBNC) to reduce the infant mortality rate began at the St Mary’s Hospital here today. The ASHA workers were imparted training under the 6th and 7th modules of the National Rural Health Mission, a project of the Government of India. Under these modules, the ASHA workers will be trained so that they are able to mobilise community people and facilitate them health and health-related services, such as immunisation, ante-natal checkup (ANC), post-natal checkup and supplementary nutrition, sanitation being provided at anganwaris, sub-centres and primary health centres. The focus will be on pregnant women who are too poor and marginalised to seek free health care. The ASHA workers will also cater to the recently migrated communities who are not registered at the local sub-centre and do not speak the local language. Master trainers from the District ASHA Resource Centre Sobit Singh Rawat and Shailendar Panwar addressed the trainees. They said mother’s health was an important component under the module. The trainees should work towards the survival of the newborns and long-term wellbeing of children, particularly girls and their families. The ASHA workers should also educate people about maternal mortality and make arrangements so that deliveries can take place at hospitals and not at homes. Around 28 million pregnancies take place every year in India with 67,000 maternal deaths and 1 million neonatal deaths. About 1 million women suffer with chronic ill health. Panwar further said 75 per cent of the neonatal deaths occurred during the first week of life and about 20 per cent took place in the first 24 hours. Thus, the provision of maternal and newborn care through a continuum of care approach during critical moment of delivery and postnatal period was essential and the ASHA workers could play a greater role in controlling the neonatal deaths. The high maternal and neonatal mortality rates are generally ascribed to medical causes and the ASHA workers with adequate training can mitigate such cases. Panwar said the government was providing these facilities free of cost and the ASHA workers should publicise them during their visits to villages. The principles underlying the provision for care for mothers and newborns and key strategies to improve maternal and newborn health were also discussed at the training session. The ASHA workers were also informed about the process of filling various forms.
	Khajan Das inspects landslide site Our Correspondent Mussoorie, March 21 Disaster Management and Sports Minister Khajan Das, taking cognizance of the news published in The Tribune titled “Landslide below Company Garden reaches alarming level” some time back, personally inspected the site today. The minister was under the notion that the Jal Sansthan, that had been provided with funds to resurrect and treat the landslide below the Company Garden, might have completed the job. But the minister was aghast at the work not completed. Jal Sansthan AE PB Bhatt informed him that they had been provided with the funds only to shift the rising main that was affected by disaster last monsoon and not to resurrect the landside area. Das, speaking to the media, said he would take up the matter on priority basis and direct the District Magistrate, Dehradun, to expedite the treatment of the landslide area within one week. He also said the work should finish before the onslaught of the monsoon this year.