The dais at Gandhi Park being razed by the Municipal Corporation staff.

Dehradun, June 20
Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli had to hold a protest on the premises of the Municipal Corporation here today to make the officials go to Gandhi Park and demolish a dais over there.

The Mayor got angry when he came to know that none of the officials visited the park to demolish the stage even after he had passed the orders for the same. Chamoli was told that Chief Executive Officer Sushil Kumar had asked them not to go to the park. The Mayor called upon Sushil Kumar and asked him about the same but the latter refused and said that he had not stopped his officials from carrying out demolition of the dais at the park. He then immediately told Assistant Executive Engineer HR Rawat to go with his team to remove the structure.

The Mayor ended his protest only after the team demolished the dais.

Chamoli, who is against the ongoing protests in the park, said owing to the political activities the beauty of the park had been affected. “We are planning to beautify the garden as lots of people visit it to get relaxed but these political people have spoilt it. They keep on organising protests in the park despite the fact that the corporation had put a ban on it,” he stated, adding, “when the police stop the people protesting outside the gate of the park they go inside and hold dharna there. Not only this they park their vehicles inside the garden due to which the grass gets crushed.”

“The project to beautify the park is already in the pipeline. The proposal has been passed at a meeting of the board and the work is under process,” Chamoli said. 

Haridwar, June 20
Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today met the aggrieved family members of the deceased killed in the road accident on the Kaudiyala-Rishikesh road attending the funeral of the deceased who had died in a accident yesterday on the Badrinath-Rishikesh highway.

Nishank specially arrived to attend the funeral rites of the five persons, including two women, killed in the road accident which occurred at Kaudiyala, 30 km from Rishikesh.The accident occurred when a Jeep coming from Paubo village in Pauri Garhwal towards Rishikesh lost control and fell into the Ganga killing three persons on the spot itself while two others later succumbed to their injuries while they were being taken to hospital.

Nishank condoled with the aggrieved members of the family, sympathising with them in this moment of a deep tragedy.

Kanpur, June 20
Setting a three-week deadline for the Uttarakhand Government, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh yesterday warned that if it did not stop illegal sand mining in the Ganga within the time frame, action will be taken under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act.

“The Uttarakhand Government has (so far) demonstrated reluctance to take action against illegal mining. We will have no option but to invoke Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act and take action on our own,” Ramesh said.

The Section 5 of the Act gives the Centre “power to direct the closure, prohibition or regulation of any industry”.

The Union Minister, who was here to launch a new green technology, said the Centre had written to the Uttarakhand Government asking it to stop the illegal sand mining in the stretches of the Ganga.

“We have, however, not received any response till date,” he said.

Ramesh warned that the BJP-ruled state that the Centre would stop the mining in the river if there was no reply within three weeks.

Swami Nigamanand, who was fasting for nearly four months demanding immediate stopping of quarrying in the Ganga, died last Monday. — PTI

Nainital, June 20
The tourism season has peaked in Nainital with there being no respite regarding the problems that have been plaguing tourism all these years. With the government and the administration failing to intervene on crucial issues, a majority of tourists is once again leaving the place feeling cheated and let down by the authorities who otherwise give up no opportunity in making tall claims.

The most important person who has not bothered to turn up in the Lake City, which finds a prominent place on the tourist map, is none else than the state Tourism Minister, Madan Kaushik. With the town fully packed with tourists coming from various parts of the country, a large section of the hoteliers and taxi owners are losing no opportunity to fleece them even if the visitor carries back a bad impression of the treatment given to him in the name of hospitality.

Once again, the administration has failed to ensure that the hoteliers display tariff cards despite having promised to do so before the tourist season picked up. With the result, the hoteliers have hiked the room rents 10 fold in certain cases. A tourist from Bazpur told this reporter,”I have had to pay Rs 6,000 for a room on the Mall Road which is not worth even Rs 600.” To make matters worse, the guests are even being charged extra in certain hotels for providing them a bucket of hot water and for allowing them to iron their clothes in their rooms.

The irony of the matter is that when this was pointed out to the administration, an official said that surprise checks were being planned. This planning comes at a time when the tourist season is about to end and tourists have already been fleeced.

Similarly, the authorities have once again failed to determine the rates of shared taxis. The taxi owners have removed the fares that had been painted at the pre-paid booth at Tallital by smearing the price tags with black paint and are charging the tourists heavily.

For example, the listed price from Nainital to Haldwani was Rs 80 per seat, which now stands anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 180.

A prominent hotelier who has been working on improving the tourism set up in the region, Praveen Sharma, said, “If states like Himachal Pradesh and Delhi can have a clear-cut travel and tourism policy, what stops

Uttarakhand from having one?” What is stopping the authorities is for everyone to guess.

Dehradun, June 20
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is conducting proficiency tests for the students of class X from July 4.“It is a special examination that is conducted to help students assess their interest and proficiency in various subjects.

The purpose of the examination is to help the students in deciding which subjects they should take up in class XI and XII,” said SK Tripathi, senior teacher of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Dehradun.

The proficiency test will be of two-and-a-half hours while the question paper of every subject will carry 100 marks. The test will be conducted in different subjects based on the syllabi of Class IX and X. The first paper is of mathematics and will be held on July 4, followed by Hindi on July 5, science on July 6, social science on July 7 and English on July 8. The timings of the special examination will be from 10.30 am to 1 pm for each subject.

As per the information provided by the CBSE, the test will have objective-type questions while the students will be given multiple choices for answers. Negative marks will also be awarded for wrong answers in different subjects.

According to the salient features of the CBSE Proficiency Test 2011, only those students are allowed to take the test who have applied through their schools and paid requisite fee. A student will have to appear at a center in the same city/place where his/her school is located. The examination will be conducted at the same centre as for class X/XII board examination. The students are required to mark the answers in a given OMR sheet with blue/black ballpoint pens only.

The general guidelines, sample questions for every subject and information about the overall setting of question papers are available on the CBSE website: www.cbse.nic.in.

Besides, the students appearing for the test will be issued a certificate by the board indicating percentile rank.

Dehradun, June 20
HNB Garhwal University will introduce the semester system for all its postgraduate courses in its affiliated colleges from the new academic year.According to sources, the decision had been taken to reduce the long-term yearly examinations process. Till now, the semester system had been introduced in professional courses by the university.

University officials have asked the faculty of its affiliated colleges to participate in setting the syllabi of different semesters in collaboration with university professors.

Now, the curriculum of postgraduate course will be divided into two semesters annually. The first semester will commence from July while the second from January.