School Principals see enhanced role of teachers
Mussoorie, August 4
More than 45 Principals from the northern region of the country gathered at St George’s School at Barlowganj here with the objective of looking into the contemporary issues facing schools as also equipping school heads with knowledge, skills and attitude which are simple to adopt in everyday practice and easily transferable to teachers, students and parents.


A speaker delivers a talk at a principals’ conference in Mussoorie on Thursday.

Dehradun August 4
The DAV Road is soon to be made one-way to avoid congestion during the election campaigns of DAV PG College.

Due to the ongoing admissions and the preparations of the upcoming student council elections at the degree college, the roads near Karanpur, Survey Chowk, D L Road and DAV Road are witnessing traffic snarl these days.

On the request of the DAV PG College Principal, the police is contemplating to make the roads leading to the college, one-way during the time of elections.

College Principal B L Nautiyal, said, “A scramble among thousands of students to seek admissions is leading to traffic jam around the college. The situation sometime gets too chaotic to be managed by the traffic police officials outside the college premises.”

“We have, therefore, requested the police to make DAV road one-way to ease the congestion and provide us the special force to prevent untoward incidents in the college,” he added.

He said things would be difficult during the student council election. “We request police officials to at least make the roads one-way during college hours,” said Nautiyal.

The college is known for its large students’ strength, which is around 35,000 that includes around 17,000 girls and 18,000 boys. This strength is much beyond the college capacity.

Circle Officer (traffic) Shweta Choubey said, “We have received a request from the college authority. And of course, if need be, we will impose a one-way traffic on the DAV Road. This, however, will be only during the elections in the college.”

However, the college authorities are making tall claims that the situation will be under control during the elections and the students contesting elections along with their campaigners will work according to the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee. 

Dehradun, August 4
A lack of coordination, cooperation and coherence among various wings of the state tourism setup is a well-known fact, but arm-twisting to the level where the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) officials seized the accounts of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) and recovered a whopping Rs 1 crore as lease amount for its tourist rest houses (TRHs) is indeed not a commonplace phenomenon.

The GMVN is running 91 TRHs built by the UTDB throughout the state and is liable to pay 25 per cent of the net profit earned by it to the UTDB, but that does not happen wilfully. “Since only 40 TRHs in total are in a profitable condition, the amount earned from them is used to balance the loss suffered by the rest of the TRHs and, to sustain the expenses of the GMVN. But this time, the UTDB toughened its stance, blocking our accounts and recovered Rs 1 crore from us. We watched helplessly,” said DS Panwar, Deputy General Manager (Commercial), GMVN.

Panwar blamed the UTDB for its double standard. He said: “Since the UTDB owns the tourist rest house buildings and collects the lease money from us, it should also take charge of their maintenance. We are already losing out on our business, more so because of a dilapidated condition of most of these TRHs. Their renovation and repairs need an enormous amount, which we can not afford. The UTDB refuses to do so.”

A high-ranking official of the UTDB denied the charges, and said: “It will be disgusting if the GMVN can not even maintain the buildings given on pittance in comparison to their market value to it by the UTDB. The skip payment of the lease amount every time, barring a couple of instances where we have to forcibly collect it from it. The GMVN charges the room fare as per the market rate from their customers. Still they cry foul.”

Sharpening his attack on the GMVN, he added: "If the UTDB plans to give any of its loss-making properties to agencies under the public-private-partnership (PPP) arrangement, then the employees of the GMVN blame us for bargaining their interests. The reality is that they themselves seem highly inefficient in managing the affairs of the nigam on their own. And wants to be in a win-win situation which is not possible all the time."

Mussoorie, August 4
More than 45 Principals from the northern region of the country gathered at St George’s School at Barlowganj here with the objective of looking into the contemporary issues facing schools as also equipping school heads with knowledge, skills and attitude which are simple to adopt in everyday practice and easily transferable to teachers, students and parents.

The chief guest on the occasion, Padamvir Singh, Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), in his inaugural address said in present circumstances education had become a great challenge and the need was to prepare teachers who could impart relevant education to students so that they can be prepared to meet challenges of their future lives. He also said education should be in tune with the aspirations of students and that was possible with an enhanced motivational level among teachers.

Padamvir also said inculcating ethical values in students at the school level was of utmost important and teachers could play a major role in it.

Another guest speaker, Rajiv Gupta, asserted that an average Indian student was much brighter than the students abroad and the only thing needed was to make education here more creative to develop the natural hidden talent of students instead of having an assembly-line approach where students are forced to follow a predetermined course, thus leading to a lack of interest. It is also important for the schools to follow the pattern of the industry of having separate human resource cells where the convenience of a teacher will be looked after so that they can give their hundred per cent, he added.

According to Dr Ravindran, Director General, ICTRC, the work of teachers has become difficult as most of the students do not want to study as they are leading luxurious lives nowadays so the role of teachers has extended not only to imparting them education but also motivating them.

The Principal of St George’s School, Brother Christopher, said such conventions were helpful to teachers in enhancing their skills, so that they could impart holistic education to students. 

Dehradun, August 4
The new office-bearers of students’ council of Delhi Public School Kalagaon, Dehradun, were felicitated during the investiture, here today. The office-bearers took an oath of service with the lighting up of the ceremonial lamp by the Principal of the school.

The programme commenced with a motivational song and decoration ceremony where Ravvernon Preet Singh as head boy, Shreya Bisht - head girl, Mritunjai Badola - sports captain, Utbazia - cultural captain and Mayank Chaudhary as discipline captain were announced.

Along with them the house captains of the Kalam, Rehman, Tendulkar and Teresa House with their teams stood tall to shoulder their responsibilities.

The selected council members took the oath to work for the uplift of the school with relentless commitment.

Meanwhile, the cultural coordinator congratulated the selected team saying that ”the key to successful leadership is influence and not authority.”

While addressing the function, Urmil Verma, Principal of the school, said: “The leaders who work effectively never say I, but they think as a team and create trust to enable themselves to achieve their task by implementing the five Ds - Diligence, Determination, Devotion, Dedication and Dutifulness.”

The programme ended with vote of thanks delivered by the head girl followed by the National Anthem sung by the school choir. 

Dehradun August 4
Participants of St Joseph’s Academy bagged the overall Best School trophy after an all-round performance in Bro C J Bergin Memorial Gold Medal Debate here today.

Also, Bro J G Masterson Memorial Silver Medal Debate for classes IX and X was conducted which saw strong performance of the participants from various schools.

The competition was organised by St George’s College, Barlowganj, where about 12 schools participated, including St. Mary’s Academy, Meerut, Mayo College, Ajmer, Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, and St. Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun.

The debate saw a departure from tradition this year, as there was a group discussion round, from which 4 out of 12 schools were selected for the final debating round.

On the backs of the strong performance of their speakers, Welham Girls, St. Joseph’s Academy, Convent of Jesus and Mary and the RIMC, Dehradun, reached the finals.

Aditi Bhowmick of Welham Girls was declared the best speaker while Bhuvanya Vijay of St Joseph’s Academy was declared the runner-up speaker in the group discussion round.

After a stimulating round of debating, Siddharth Priyadarshi Sharma of SJA won the Best Speaker award and was presented with the Bro. C. J. Bergin Memorial Gold Medal. Aditi Bhowmick of Welham Girls was the runner-up speaker and also the best rebuttal. 

Dehradun, August 4
Endangered Flora and Fauna on Earth Conservation Team (EFFECT) members visited various temples across the city today to ensure that no atrocities were being done on snakes as part of the Nag Panchami celebrations.

Led by Abhishek Singh, chairman, EFFECT, the team prominently visited famous Tapkeshwar Mahadev temple at Garhi Cantt, Shiv Mandir on the Mussoorie road and Lakshman Sidh Mandir on the Haridwar road.

The team also interacted with devotees at these temples.

During the visits, it also asked the people to report to them if they come across any incident of snake torture.

They apprised them about the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 as well as the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 asserting that it was a crime on part of snake charmers to catch snakes, exploit them for monetary purposes or even own them.

Abhishek said it had been observed that people resort to force feeding of milk to snakes.

“For the purpose, they are kept starved and thirsty. This make snakes consume the milk offered to them,” he said.

He added that milk further causes them to be dehydrated, have allergic reactions and often dysentery. As a result, most of them die in the process.

EFFECT, which has been working on snake rescue programmes, had trained 94 forest guards so far on the snake rescue techniques.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals a few days ago has also issued an appeal to the public asking them to avoid snake shows and help the reptiles by reporting about snake charmers to the authorities concerned on Nag Panchami.

Mussoorie, August 4
The Naag Panchami festival was celebrated with fervour and gaiety at Naag Mandir (temple) on the Hathipaon Road, 5 km from Mussoorie, today.

Devotees from the region gathered at the temple to worship Lord Naag Raj. The priest of the Naag Devta temple offered prayers. The devotees offered milk, fruits and sweets on the occasion.

A bhandara and havan was organised by the Naag Devta Mandir Committee for the devotees. The 7-day-old Bhagwat katha also came to end where Acharya Parsuram, speaking to a gathering, said the devotion was the only way towards peace and harmony in life. Temple committee president Hoshiyar Singh Thapli said more than 10,000 persons had already visited the temple here. He also said the Naag Mandir is revered around the region and is more than 200-year-old. It was found by villagers when they saw a cow shedding milk at one of the stones around the area. The stone since then has been revered as Naag Devta.

MLA Mussoorie Jot Singh Gunsola, Palika president OP Uniyal and former Palika president Manmohan Singh Mall and senior BJP leader Ravinder Jugran also sought the blessings of the lord on the occasion.

Dehradun, August 4
Dehradun football, which was once known in the country for producing several ace footballers and for the culture of the sport here, is set to get a much-needed kick soon.

Talented players and coaches of the region will now have a platform to showcase their talent and get noticed.

Officials of the Chicago-based football company that has been in the business for years is on a first trip to Doon to explore the sport here for the same.

The company will select talented players and coaches and will help them place in top-notch football academies/clubs in the country. It will also get them sponsored. On top of it, players of Doon will be practising in the Sesa Goa Sports Club under the exchange programme as the company is associated with the club. The Sesa club is among the first top 12 football clubs of the country. Talks are on in this regard.

“We know football exists in Dehradun and we wanted to come here for a long time. We have come here to explore on our first trip. We will interact with players, coaches and officials here to get an idea of football here,” said Sukhvinder Singh, managing director of the company, Liberosports.

“We help those who want to invest in football or want to sponsor footballers by searching talented players from the sport,” he said.“Places like Dehradun, Pune, Delhi, North-East or Punjab have fresh ideas and we want them to utilise these in a best way,” Sukhvinder added.

He said there were talented players here but they lack exposure, which they could get in places like Bombay and Kolkata where the game was played. The players here will get a missing link to a professional network with Liberosports.

Sukhvinder, however, felt that the players of the region were more sturdy and strong in comparison to other states and this was an extra advantage to them.

Randeep Baruah, manager-player representative, who was accompanying Sukhvinder, claimed that they were the only football company in the country and had placed seven players in prestigious clubs, including the Pune Football Club, the Churchill Brothers Sports Club and the United Sikkim Football Club in the past one year when the company came to India.

Other than this, two players have also been given sponsorships.

Dehradun, August 4
City Young edged past Doon Valley 1-0 here today during the District Football League that is underway on the Pavilion ground.

In the closely contested encounter, the first half went barren as neither of the side could score any goal. The two teams though made several good goal-bearing attempts but failed to convert.

However, the second half saw smiles on the faces of the players of City Young when Rakesh struck a goal in the 40th minute to turn the tide.

On the other hand, Doon Valley made some moves but to no avail.

Tomorrow, Chandramani will face Uttarakhand Police and Garhwal Boys will play against Akranta. Meanwhile, a meeting of the district football league was held for chalking out a plan for the super league that will start from August 7.

Officials said the league had got extended a bit longer this year and they would try to finish it on scheduled time.

Dehradun, August 4
Tibetan Home today thrashed Col Brown School 5-1 in the ongoing 27th Carbery Memorial Inter School Sub-Junior Football Tournament, being organised by Carman School, Dalanwala.

Dorjee struck as many as four goals to help his team score a win. While Tsering chipped in with a goal for the winning team.

Col Brown scored the lone goal through Gaurav Bhatia.

In other match, Aryan School blanked Pestle Weed College 4-0. Sandeep and Shadib scored two goals each in the win.

Meanwhile, Carman School, Dalanwala also beat Kasiga School 2-0 with the efforts of Aysuh Dimri and Harsh Rathi.