Dehradun, May 25
Lying in limbo for more than five years, the inactive Madrasa board of Uttarakhand has “blighted” the future of hundreds of students keen to upgrade their educational qualifications.

As of now, the Muslim students have to satisfy themselves with jobs as Maulanas in mosques across the state, after a five-year basic course in Dini Talim, they cannot aspire to take up another vocation that would help them earn a livelihood other than that of a Maulvi.

“It's been more than five years since the Madrasa board was created during the tenure of former Chief Minister ND Tiwari, the executive board was formed and the Chairman of the Madrasa board, Maulana Mohammed Ahmed Khatibi, too, was nominated but he passed away,” said Lt-Col Mohammed Qadri Hussain (retd), Executive Chairman, Muslim Education Mission. If the board was functional in Uttarakhand, the Madrasas would have got affiliation and the classes being run by them would have received due recognition, allowing students to compete for jobs and even join mainstream educational institutions.

“There are few Madrasas existing in the state with affiliation from the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Board. But the students find themselves at a disadvantage as their qualifications are not recognised by the Uttarakhand state and hence they cannot apply for jobs. Few Madrasas were forced to apply for affiliation to Uttarakhand Education Board, in order to reap the benefit of Madrasa modernisation schemes launched by the Central Government under the Area Intensive Madrasa Modernisation Programme and the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQM )programme.

But they have been unable to provide Dini Talim, as the Uttarakhand Education Department does not have provision for religious education. So all of them are unhappy with the prevailing situation,” emphasised Mohammed Abdul Aleem Ansari, Secretary, Muslim Education Mission.

In fact, the idea of creation of Uttarakhand Madrasa Board was specifically floated to fill the existing gaps. The state Education Department failed to take up the matter, citing lack of provision of religious education and non-availability of teachers, who could teach Urdu, Arabic and Persian. Also a need was felt to give due recognition to the education imparted in the Madrasas by a competent authority/board.

Dehradun/Haridwar, May 25
Many youngsters from Uttarakhand have cracked the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), the results of which were announced today.

Raghav Gupta, student of Delhi Public School, Haridwar, who had recently secured the overall second position in the CBSE class XII examination in Uttarakhand, has got another major success by achieving overall 74th rank in the IIT-JEE, the highest rank reported so far from the state. Rahgav said his success in IIT JEE was like dream came true for him. He pointed out that he did expect good marks as he had already started preparing for IIT-JEE from class XI. He credited his success to his teachers and also the supportive parents.

Raghav, who likes to listen to music as a pass-time hobby, said now his target was to complete the IIT course with flying colours. He has still not thought of his plans after the IIT and would at present like to focus his energies on completing his course successfully.

Doonite Rahul Sharma got the 638th rank. Similarly, Archit Agarwal (1357th), Amandeep Singh (1445th), Khuwab Bansal (2871th), Udit Chauhan (4337th), Isan Goel (5978th), Nitish Purohit (6886th), Kshitiz Goel (7400th) have also done well.

Piyush Singh, Rachit Verma, Saurab Srivasata, Vinod Kumar, Pulkit Gera, Hemal Kumar, Pradeep Patel, Shantanu Gupta, Priya Patel, Vishal, Deep Singh, Rahul Sharma, Dhurv Patel, Robin Srivastava and Sidharth Dutt have cracked the test too.

Dehradun, in the past couple of years, has emerged as a major hub of coaching for the professional engineering and medical courses.

Dehradun, May 25
Drawing the government’s attention towards the non-fulfilment of their demands, the Anganwari Workers today staged a dharna at Gandhi Park here.

The main demands of the anganwari workers include the implementation of government order with immediate effect regarding the raise in honorarium, creation of a welfare fund for anganwari workers as directed by the Central Government and also extension of gratuity benefits to the workers after their retirement.

The other demands for which the anganwari workers are agitating include the age-relaxation benefit be given to workers applying for the post of mukhya sewika (anganwari) and setting aside 50 per cent promotional posts of mukhya sewika.

Those who participated in the dharna included Laxmi, Urmila, Chitra, Purnima and others. The dharna was held under the aegis of the Anganwadi Workers/Sewika Karamchari Union, Uttaranchal.

Haridwar, May 25
Women folk of villages in the Sultanpur area have given the term, “woman empowerment” a new meaning by launching a campaign to stop the supply of liquor to their area.

These women from the villages of Khanpur and Brahampur have decided to join hands to launch the campaign against the registered wine shops as well as illegal sale of country liquor in the villages by liquor mafia, in order to save male members of their families from getting addicted to alcohol. They have even announced that a reward of Rs 500 will be given to a person who catches any male members of their families in an inebriated condition. The agitating women, including married and unmarried ones, are so determined to weed out the evil of liquor from their area that when some people tried to open a liquor shop in the area, they attacked the people who had come to open the liquor shop with sticks.

Maina Devi, one of the agitators, told The Tribune that their campaign was not a result of ill-effects of liquor in the area in recent times but they had suffered due to the menace of liquor for years.

“Many women have lost their husbands to liquor. They died due to liver failure. A number of families are living in penury as their husbands, sons are addicted to liquor and hardly go to the fields. Almost every house is one way or the other affected due to this menace. So we have decided that we would not allow opening of the liquor shop in the village as well as brewing of country liquor by villagers,” said Maina.

These women held a panchayat and issued a diktat that now onwards the women would not toil in the fields, as their husbands just make merry on their income and would see to it that men go to their work places and fields regularly.

Phool Mati, another affected villager, said they unearthed caskets of country liquor and destroyed these. Taking cognisance of this campaign, temporary in charge District Magistrate BK Sant has sought a detailed report from the local administrative officials. Even police officials, who had gone to pacify the agitating women, had to return without success.

Meanwhile, the ripple effects of the campaign has been experienced in other parts of the district with Jagjeetpur village, situated on the outskirts of Haridwar city, prohibiting the sale of liquor in their village and closing down the liquor shop. They alleged that the shop remained open 24 hours a day and the youth of the village were falling easy prey to the liquor addiction.

Meanwhile, five public schools, which are situated within 100-metre diameter of the two liquor shops on the Lakshar road, have filed a complaint with SDM Harveer Singh, who has directed the district excise officer to look into the matter.

Mussoorie, May 25
Tourists and residents alike are finally ready to savour the taste of wild fruit called “kaphal”, locally available in the summer season. The fully ripened “kaphal” berries are available on the Mall road, although at a price of Rs 40 per kg.

For some tourists, savouring “kaphal” is a first-time experience. “The taste was a bit on the sour side,” said Namrita, a tourist from Mumbai. She wondered whether it was grown on shrubs or a tree.

A street vendor, Riaz, said that it was an arduous task to pluck the fruit from the trees growing in Khattapani forest near Mussoorie. “I have been selling the fruit since my childhood but this year the yield is less due to unknown reasons,” added Riaz. Explaining the hike in the prices, he said the inflation this year was beyond comprehension. Despite that, the fruit is one of the favourite among the tourists.

The Joint Director, Yasin Fernery, Harish Sharma, explains that “kaphal”, scientifically known as “Myrica Nagi,” belongs to the Myricaceae family and the English name for it is Box Myrtl.

“Kaphal” is a sub-temperate evergreen tree found throughout the mid-Himalayas, starting from about 1,300 metres and going up to about 2,100 metres especially in this month. The tree yields a fruit which is one of the tastiest wild fruits of the sub-Himalayan region. This fruit tree carries a lot of commercial value and every year its fruits worth thousands of rupees are sold in different towns of Uttarakhand.

The flowering and fruiting season start from the first fortnight of February and continue till the second fortnight of April.

Sharma further said that the bark of “kaphal” possessed many medicinal properties. It was hot, stimulating and useful in catarrhal fever, cough and in the afflictions of the throat. Oil prepared from it is dropped into ears to stop earache.

Dehradun, May 25
The joint association of contractual employees of the three corporations of power sector cancelled their decision of committing collective suicide after Secretary, Power, Uma Kant Panwar, agreed to some of their main demands yesterday late in the evening. But the employees who demanded minutes of the meeting held with the secretary continued to wait for these for the whole day on Wednesday, which created more confusion. The employees continued to hold meetings with HR Head, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, but nothing happened till evening.

One of the representatives of the joint association, Yogender Vishal, said, “We had demanded that no employee should be victimised after the strike got over; the absence during the one-month strike should be

assimilated in the annual leave; yearly increment and dearness allowance; collective bonus once in a year, department to give its share for our monthly EPF and our representation in the talks over regularisation with the management and officers at the secretary level.”

He also said the secretary agreed to almost all their demands; in the matter of the EPF, he assured them of beginning it from the current month, but did not promise it from the back date. “He also agreed to shielding from victimisation, adjustment of absence, regularisation panel and disbursement of salary by 10th of every month. But in the fax message sent to us today, there was no mention of our representation in the talks on regularisation along with other discrepancies. So we are waiting to get clarity in written form from him. On Thursday, we will plan our next course of action,” he said.

Dehradun, May 25
Sixty-three-year-old Shishan Nikky Pillay from South Africa, a karate grandmaster, is credited with the possession of eight dan certificates. Pillay, who is in the city to impart training to schoolchildren at a two-day karate camp that begins here tomorrow, said he had great expectations from Uttarakhand taking into account the geographical conditions of the state.

“Children from the hills are physically strong and proper guidance can bring out their hidden karate talent,” he said.

Pillay, however, said corruption had taken toll on sports. The promotion of any sport needed commitment, which was missing in the country. A few know that karate originated in India and subsequently went abroad. While countries like Japan progressed much in karate, India lost this martial art to a big extent, he added.

Nainital, May 25
The stage is all set for the 9th Governor’s Golf Cup Tournament that gets under way at the sprawling golf course at Raj Bhawan here from Friday. The event will be inaugurated by Governor Margaret Alva, along with Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, who is an avid golfer himself.

Alva inaugurated the New Golf Club and the Van Chetna Kendra building at Raj Bhawan on Wednesday. As many as 160 golfers have shown interest in participating in the event that is expected to be quite competitive.