Gandhi eye hospital faces resource crunch
Dehradun, August 9
Almost on the verge of completion, Gandhi Centenary Eye Hospital and Eye Bank has been hit by resource crunch and may even miss the March 2012 completion deadline.

Dehradun, August 9
The purpose of installing the traffic lights on all the junctions of the state capital stands defeated. Most of them remain off as cops prefer to manage traffic manually to avoid traffic jams.

The distance between two junctions is not enough to avoid traffic jams. This indicates the lights have been installed without any planning by the authorities concerned.

Director of LSTL Media Limited YK Agarwal said seven traffic light points were being managed by the Public Works Department (PWD) while the rest of 12 were being looked after by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA), which had outsourced his company for the job. The company is based in Noida.

Agarwal felt given short distances between junctions in Dehradun, the decision to have traffic lights on every junction is not ideal. It seems proper planning has not been done while going for the installation of the traffic lights, he added.

According to him, lights at almost all the 19 junctions are functional but these are kept off in order to regulate traffic manually. Installing these lights on a single junction costs Rs 7 or 8 lakh, which seems to be a waste of public money here.

Traffic Inspector Rakesh Devali said: “Though the traffic lights are functional, we keep them off considering the flow of the traffic and the short distances between the junctions. A proper planning should have been done when the orders were given to install the lights at every crossing.”

Dehradun, August 9
Residents of Defence Colony are a harried lot these days due to the ongoing digging for laying sewerage in their colony. The project is being executed by the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

They alleged that several tress had been uprooted and their phone lines cut due to the ongoing digging. The residents feared the boundary walls of their houses might collapse, as unlike the normal practice, the digging is not being done in the middle of the road of close to it but about a metre or two away from the road.

“All the plants grown by me outside my house have been uprooted. Even the officials of the BSNL can be seen in the locality fixing the snapped wires, which were damaged due to the digging work,” lamented a resident.

“The work started about two weeks ago and this is the condition of the locality here. We keep guessing what is going to happen to the colony infrastructure in the future as the digging work will take more than a year to be completed,” another resident said.

Meanwhile, the officials present at the site told The Tribune that they had been requested by the residents to carry out digging on the roadside.

Dehradun, August 9
Almost on the verge of completion, Gandhi Centenary Eye Hospital and Eye Bank has been hit by resource crunch and may even miss the March 2012 completion deadline.

Once complete, the hospital will provide the facility of cornea transplantation. In the absence of a dedicated eye bank, the public has been relying on higher centres located outside the state or private hospitals.

Being built by the PWD, the hospital comprises four floors and a basement for parking. “We may be able to commission the hospital in March next year provided we are allocated the remaining amount by the authorities. Otherwise, the date may be extended. A total expenditure of Rs 8.4 crore has been incurred on the hospital from the allocated funds two years ago. But now we require Rs 8 crore more to complete the flooring, the fixing of doors, windows, sanitary fittings and some miscellaneous work,” said BN Choudhury, Executive Engineer, PWD (Construction).

In the initial stages of the project, the eye hospital and bank was under the supervision of the Directorate General (Health), but later, the supervision was passed on to the Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS), Doon Hospital.

However, the CMS said he was not being kept in the loop and no progress report had been given to him about the construction. “They are neither consulting us nor we have been apprised of the progress made by the PWD. Once complete, the hospital will be under the supervision of the CMS and Doon Hospital,” said Dr BC Pathak, CMS, Doon Hospital.

The lack of coordination between Doon Hospital and the PWD was also reflected in a lack of enthusiasm shown by the CMS when asked about the completion date for the project. “The PWD has not shared the details of the project. I can only hope that the procedures laid down by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for eye banks and eye hospitals are being followed because the construction has to be done according to specifications,” Dr Pathak added.

Dehradun, August 9
Lashing out at the Central Government for having failed to take steps to check the menace of corruption, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a protest at Clock Tower here today.

Activists of the ABVP also blocked traffic at the city’s busiest intersections. They raised slogans against the Central Government’s non-effective anti-corruption policy.

Threatening to intensify their agitation, Ummed Singh Negi, state president of the ABVP, said: “We will continue with protests against the government if nothing was done to eradicate corruption.”

Traffic management in the city went haywire following a one-hour road block at Clock Tower. A large number of commuters at Clock Tower, Chakrata Road, Rajpur Road, Paltan Bazar and Darshan Lal Chowk had to face inconvenience as they had to change their routes.

Those who were present during the protest were Ashish Bahuguna, Jitender Singh Moni, Anshul Chawla and other members of the group. 

Dehradun, August 9
The Dehradun District Bar Association has decided to boycott the evening courts in the District Court complex and bring the matter to the knowledge of the Bar Council of Uttarakhand after building a consensus with their counterparts of various courts of the state.

After holding its meeting today, president of the association Manmohan Kandwal said it was inappropriate to expect the advocates to continue to attend the court till 7 in the evening. This way they would not be left with any time to prepare for the cases to be heard the next day and their personal family engagements.

The evening courts have been held from 4.30 in the evening for two hours from August 1.

“Dehradun is flooded with more with petty crimes such as offences against women, cheque bouncing etc. In case if a separate magistrate is given independent charge to hear these cases, then the load of the cases will come down drastically. Other than that, the cases which are not solved till normal court time cannot be expected to make any headway in the evening schedule. Therefore we have decided to boycott the evening courts,” said Kandwal.

He stressed that the advocates should also have been taken into confidence, before coming up with such an order.

Kandwal said it was only the selective district courts - Haridwar, Kotdwar, Haldwani, Kashipur, Rudrapur, Udhamsingh Nagar - which had been directed to hold evening courts in the state.

The others who attended meeting included advocates Chander Shekhar Tiwari, Surender Singh Pundir, Manmohan Lamba, Deepak Kumar and Shambu Mamgai.

Mussoorie, August 9
Chaotic scenes were witnessed once again in the reconvened Municipal Council (MC) meeting held today. Earlier, the meeting had been cancelled on July 26. Ramesh Bhandari and Virendar Rawat, along with a few other members, registered their protest on the reintroduced proposal of installing a generator set at the Gun Hill ropeway site. They had opposed the move during the previous meeting too.

They also questioned the proposal of setting up hydraulic barriers on the Mall Road. Bhandari questioned the reason behind setting up the new barriers at a cost of Rs 60 lakh when the firm which had been assigned the task earlier was to do so in lieu of the revenue generated from 20 hoardings in the town. He alleged that it was sheer waste of the public money and even the Comptroller and Auditor General was also not clear about the account head from which the amount was to be released.

Kedar Singh Chauhan counter-alleged that the two members were objecting to development of the town due to their nefarious designs and should be stopped from doing so. This statement resulted into a heated exchange of words between the ward members forcing Bhandari to say that he was ashamed of sitting in such a house where the voice of its members was not heard.

Santosh Arya, another ward member, also raised the issue of misuse of funds being collected under eco tax. Arya said it had come to her notice that the collection of eco tax had dipped despite a rise in the number of tourists visiting Mussoorie.

Municipal Council President UP Uniyal, refuting all the charges, said there was some sort of misunderstanding among the Opposition members which will be removed after detailed discussions and all proposals would be approved today. Speaking over the issue of introducing hydraulic barriers on the Mall Road, Uniyal said the firm entrusted with the task had pledged to install the barriers similar to the ones set up at Parliament House in New Delhi. He also informed that house that the council would utilise the eco tax collection to install the hydraulic barriers.

Later speaking to the media, Uniyal said all the potable water tanks installed on the Mall Road would be replaced with water purifying units so that tourists got clean water. Speaking over the contentious issue of the Clock Tower construction in Landour Bazar, he said keeping in view the sentiments of the residents of the tower area, it would be constructed within seven or eight months. The proposed amount for the project has also been raised to Rs 75 lakh.

Dehradun, August 9
State President of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Vinod Barthwal met Chief General Manager, Jal Sansthan, DD Dimri, today and made him aware about potable water problems the residents of Raipur were facing.

Dimri assured him of timely action to resolve these problems. Barthwal said the areas such as Railway Colony got drinking water supply from a waterfall of Raipur whereas the residents of this area were constrained to drink the polluted water. He demanded that the water supply should be connected to the waterfall and tubewell of sports college situated in the locality. “It is irony that the waterfall of the Raipur provides drinking water to the adjoining areas whereas the dwellers of this area had been drinking unsafe water for years. Because of this, we have demanded the drinking water for this area to be sourced as well from the waterfall, and from the tubewell of the sports college. The area also needs a water works department, more tubewells and a separate water connection for the Nalapani area in the vicinity,” he said.

Dimri expressed concern over these problems and assured swift action.

Dehradun, August 9
The second day of the four day cultural week at St Joseph’s Academy was filled with enthusiasm and colours of India here today.

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the rich culture and tradition of India was brought to display by the junior school, marking the beginning of this year’s ceremonial extravaganza. Amid the excitement and activity, the campus was full of young and smiling faces. With a healthy spirit of competition, the four houses, Donovan, Duffy, Bergin and Dooley, participated in the cultural event.

The inter-house competition commenced with solo dance performances. Anushree Rawat of the Bergin House got appreciation for her freestyle western dance.

Jhanvi Bhatia made the Duffy House proud with her classical Manmohini dance. Shilpita Baruah of the Dooley House performed a Bihu dance while Swarmyee Marathee delivered a flawless classical kathak dance.

This was followed by group dance performances. The Bergin House performed an energetic foot tapping Marathi dance while the Duffy House took the audience to the state of Punjab with a colourful Punjabi folk dance. The Dooley and Donovan Houses gave scintillating performances on Bengali and Rajasthani folk dances, respectively. The skaters were equally entertaining as they displayed their skill of artistic skating.

However, the fancy dress competition stole away the limelight of the programme and attracted one and all. The Bergin House had everyone holding on to their seats in fright with their depiction of Halloween. Their cocktail of characters included Count Dracula, witches, werewolf and other creepy characters.

The participants of the Duffy House made the audience tap their feet with the Musical Bonanza theme that showcased Radha, Krishna, Ganesha and even pop icon Usha Utthup. While the Dooley House entertained everyone with their rendition of the popular show, “India’s Got Talent” and the Donovan House kept true to their theme of “myths and magicians”, enacting roles of Harry Potter and other mystical characters. Lauding the efforts of the students and staff, Brother A J George, principal of St Joseph’s Academy, complimented them for their creativity and talent.

Overall, the Donovan House won the maximum competitions closely followed by Duffy, Dooley and Bergin House.

Dehradun, August 9
The second day of the Mindspree festival dawned clear and bright with a power-packed presentations by students here today. The chief guest on the occasion was Edward Temple, principal of The Indian Cambridge School, Dehradun.

The participants presented the power-point presentation on various topics. Students by way of visual images put their views on different topics across after careful research and analysis.

Summer Valley School was adjudged first in the contest, St Jude’s was declared second while St Thomas’ College bagged third position. 

Dehradun, August 9
The following are the results of the RIMC Inter-Section Soccer Competition held on the first day today.

Juniors:

Pratap section defeated Ranjit section 3-0. Cadets Akshat and Pratik scored goals for Pratap section.

Shivaji section defeated Chandragupta section 4-3. Cadets Michael and Param scored for Shivaji section whereas Cadets Tomthin and Sohail scored for Chandragupta section.

Seniors

Pratap section defeated Shivaji section 2-0. Cadet Nelson scored both goals for Pratap section.

In a closely fought match, Ranjit section defeated Chandragupta section 3-2. Cadets Khuman, Ankit and Punit scored for Ranjit section, whereas Cadets Ayush and Suhas scored for Chandragupta Section.

At the end of the day, the section standings were as follows-

Pratap section- 06 points, Ranjit section- 03 points, Shivaji section- 03 points and Chandragupta section- 0 points.

Dehradun, August 9
Adhoiwala Boys edged past Vijay Cantt 1-0 here today in a super league encounter during the district football league that held on the Pavilion Ground.

It was made possible for Adhoiwala by Mohit in the 57th minute of the play. In this closely contested match, no goal came in the first half. While in the second half, Mohit starred for his side scripting the win.

Cantt Blue and City Young locked on 1-1 in the second match. Jeet (34th) scored for Cantt Blue in the first half. While Nitin (43rd) of City Young scored the equaliser in the second half.

Tomorrow, Garhwal Sporting will face Akranta and Doon Valley will meet Wills Youth Club.