Nainital, May 20
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva has called for an efficiency-mediated improvement in agricultural productivity, citing it as the most viable option to raise production. Alva made this assertion while speaking as chairperson and chief guest on the occasion of the 27th Convocation of Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar, the first State Agriculture University of the country.

The Governor said: “Given the fact that there is practically no scope for expanding the area under cultivation, the growing threat to food and nutritional security has to be met through declining and degrading natural resources, primarily, water and soil. Moreover, the current levels of efficiency of native resources are unacceptably low. When resources and inputs are used inefficiently, both cost of cultivation and threat for biosphere pollution increase and production decreases.”

In her presidential address, the Governor said in view of the present and potential challenges before the agricultural sector, a whole set of new initiatives will have to be taken based on improving delivery mechanism and utilisation of appropriate technologies. “There is an emerging need to bridge the gap in lab and land results, by delivering the technologies, best practices, success models, etc, through much stronger extension linkages,” she said.

Referring to the major role played by women in Uttarakhand in agriculture in the hilly areas, the Governor said the entire mountain life revolved around women. “Therefore, our policies, our plans and our programmes for these areas must ensure that women and their needs are made their central point. No agricultural system can be sustained without ecological sustainability of its own. And no society can be sustained without gender balance. Gender balanced development alone can ensure sustainable social development,” she advocated.

Highlighting the role of the university in the context of Uttarakhand, the Governor said like all other hill states of the country, the growing challenges also haunt the state of Uttarakhand that had small farms and a large area under rain-fed agriculture. “The emerging scenario vis-à-vis natural resources, however, is not conducive to food security in the region. Reversal of this situation and restoration of sustainable livelihoods and food security systems is, nevertheless, possible,” she said.

In the context of changes taking place across the globe, the Governor said there was hunger and starvation in some parts of the world while in other parts wasteful consumption is the rule of life. “With economic and technological development, land, water and vegetative resources are shrinking. Their overexploitation and abuse have resulted in degrading and reducing productivity everywhere,” she said.

The Governor, in her capacity as Chancellor of the university conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on Islam A Siddiqui, Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative, Dr Robert S Zeigler, Director-General of the International Rice Research Institute and Rana Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, YES Bank, in recognition of their immense and distinguished contributions to society through their research, academic and social pursuits. She also praised the role and contribution of Ambassador Islam A Siddiqui, who was in the first batch of agriculture graduates of the university, in serving humanity in different parts of the world.

The Governor also released publications brought out by the university, which includes “The Nainital Declaration-2010”.

Dr S Ayyappan, who is Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Government of India, and Director-General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), delivered the convocation address.

Dr Ayyappan underlined the importance of allied sector in the economic and social development of the country. He said with the increase in population, production of various commodities has also increased substantially, which he termed as a rainbow revolution. However, he said with the increase in demand of various commodities, technological development is required to increase production despite depleting and degrading soil, water, biodiversity and climate.

He also emphasised to develop technologies suiting small and marginal farmers who had small landholdings, besides using novel approaches in breeding and hybrid technology. Dr Ayyappan also called for a vibrant dynamic and innovation approach in agriculture extension for effective technology transfer.

State Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was the guest of honour on the occasion.

Nainital, May 20
A schoolgirl abducted from Haldwani about a month ago has been found bringing relief to the child as well her family.

The victim was found in the Jamor area in Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar following efforts by the family of the gram pradhan of the village.

According to information, the nine-year-old girl had been allegedly abducted by Rafiq of Dungarpur Shergarh locality of Bareilly while she was returning home from her school in Subhash Nagar. The girl had been lured by the accused on the pretext of giving her some articles. The child has related to the police that she was beaten up by her abductor who had threatened to chop off her tongue. She was even kept hungry and thirsty.

The girl’s father, Murari Lal, allegedly committed suicide on May 15 following family discord and allegations that he had sold off his daughter.

It was about 20 days ago that Rafiq approached the extended family of the gram pradhan at Jamor for rental accommodation. Seeing the condition of the child and her guardian, the accommodation was given to them but when the child was asked about her not going to any school, she narrated the entire tale to the family of the landlord. The name and address of the school in Subhash Nagar were obtained from her school belt and notebooks. It is being alleged that the school authorities denied on being contacted on the telephone that any of their students had gone missing.

Meanwhile, Rafiq took the girl away and on being asked told his landlord that she had been sent to her maternal grandparents at Bhojipura Rampura.This led to the family of the gram pradhan to report the matter to the police and after interrogation, he confessed his crime.

The motive behind his abducting the girl is yet unclear.Investigations are on in the matter.

Dehradun, May 20
A 41-member team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) comprising 17 women and four members of the Haryana Police, including two women, will leave for a pre-Everest expedition to Mt Satopanth on May 23 from Mussoorie.

The expedition team today in a function met with ITBP Director-General of Police RK Bhatia who flagged off the team. The team will be led by DIG Harbhajan Singh, who has already led 15 expeditions, including Mt Everest and Nanda Devi.

Singh will be assisted by two-time Everest summiteer, Commandant Prem Singh.The team will also include Everesters SM Wangchuk Sherpa and Inspector Jot Singh as members. On the basis of the performance of the team members during the expedition, the final team will be selected to take part in the Mt Everest expedition being launched by the ITBP from March to June 2012 to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the force.

Other than conducting the expedition, the expedition party will also try to locate eight persons of a tracking team led by NP Rao, who were last seen at the junction of Chaturangi and Sweta Glacier last year in the area.

“This is a very challenging expedition; in fact any expedition above the height of 70,000 is tough. It is like fighting with Nature. We are both experienced and the first-timer members in the group and we are sure of coming back successful,” team leader Singh told reporters here.

Earlier the DGP addressed the team members in the hall of the ITBP here. “This is a unique expedition in the sense that descent will be done via skiing, which is not easy and involves a lot of risk,” he said.

He highlighted during his address that over 180 teams of the ITBP had conducted such expeditions till date. Other than this, Mt Everest had successfully been climbed three times by the ITBP, he added. After the function, he was presented with a memorial by the IGP.

Dehradun, May 20
The Director-General of Police of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has said that corruption will not be tolerated in the force and a departmental inquiry will be ordered at an appropriate stage into the corruption case involving four officials who were booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this month.

“We will not tolerate corruption in the force and strict action will be initiated against those found guilty,” DGP RK Bhatia said here at the sidelines of a function at the ITBP, Seemadwar, in Dehradun. Replying to the question whether a departmental inquiry has been ordered into the alleged scam, the DGP said, “The CBI is doing its job. And at an appropriate stage, we will also order a departmental inquiry into the matter.”

The CBI had registered a case against DIG Satpal, Deputy Commandant NR Shimrey, Assistant Commandant Somnath and head constable Varinder Kumar were booked for allegedly taking illegal gratification for favouring constables/head constables in the departmental selection process in January in Dehradun.

The CBI today raided the office and residential places of the officers in Dehradun, Chandigarh and Delhi. Meanwhile, on the border security, he said, “Restructuring is being done. An additional force of 31,000 will be added into the force by 2015. Out of them recruitment of 14,000 will be done by this year-end.”