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Protest by hundreds in support of quarrying
Ban on Quarrying |
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Agitating model school students plan lockout
Director accuses UKD of cashing in on students’ problems
Gentlemen Cadets told to uphold Indian Army ethos
Eco conference to focus on wildlife corridors
IMA conference begins tomorrow
Honours shared in tennis tourney
Kaushik stresses insurance cover for hill people
Man behind 5 thefts nabbed
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Protest by hundreds in support of quarrying
Haridwar, December 8 As per their announcement, the agitators tried to barge through city’s busiest intersection, Ranipur, to reach the District Magistrate’s office, but the police was ready for them. Heavy deployment of police personnel at Singh Dwar,Shankar Ashram ,Chandracharya Chowk made it quite tough for the protesters to enter into the main city area. The police had to resort to a mild lathi charge to disperse the agitators without aggravating the situation as the protesters burned a tractor in the very middle of the Rishikul intersection. Instantly, fire tankers were pitched in and water canons were used to disperse the agitators. SP of City Police (Traffic), Dr Kiran Lal Shaw, said that the situation was brought under control within minutes of the protesters setting ablaze the tractor.
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Ban on Quarrying
Haridwar, December 8 Former legislator Ambrish Kumar has termed the government’s step as a hasty one and that reflecting the lacklustre working of the BJP government. Haridwar District Magistrate R Senthyl Pendiyan had ordered a ban on quarrying in the region till a Central environment committee gives its final report but why the Chief Minister and his Cabinet Minister did not take this aspect into consideration before going on record, he asks. The Congress leaders also came in support of the pro-quarrying workers, terming the prohibition as a blow to the livelihood of thousands of people. “Barring the Kumbh area, quarrying should be immediately allowed in the region as it’s affecting tens of thousands of people associated with this mini trade. Allow it with a scientific approach and the use of heavy machines should be totally prohibited,” said Ambrish. While former municipal chairman Satpal Brahamchari cited the need of quarrying at a certain level as otherwise the silt gets accumulated resulting in floods in the areas close to the Ganga. The district unit of the party has decided to organise a symbolic protest at the tehsil office on December 12 in support of quarrying and warned the state government of an intensified agitation, if it doesn’t retract from its anti-quarrying stance.
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Agitating model school students plan lockout
Dehradun, December 8 Today, they rejected the reply prepared by the Director, NIVH, to their 29-charter of demands, terming it false and inadequate. The incensed students who had first protested against the ill-fitting uniform that were handed to them on December 4 hardened their stand by sending their 29-point charter of demands to the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, yesterday. He forwarded the charter to the Director, NIVH, Anuradha Dalmia. “We are being served stones instead of rice, the chapatis cannot be swallowed, all the funds sent for our welfare are being squandered away by the NIVH management. There is a shortage of teachers at the senior level, so much so the junior level teachers are being forced to chip in. How long would this go on?” asked a student. Quite vociferous about their demands the students today refused to hold a meeting with the Principal and the Director to which they had agreed earlier and were busy chalking out a strategy for tomorrow. They even forbade the officials of the institute from coming close to the place of their meeting. “The management and the Director are using strong-arm tactics and have threatened to expel us from the school, if we do not end our strike. They have even tried to create fissures among our group,” said Vikas, a student of class XII. In 2005 too the students of the model school had resorted to strike but since Anuradha Dalmia took charge, this is the first time that the students have gone on strike. The strike has acquired political overtones with the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leaders launching a campaign against the Director,
NIVH.
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Director accuses UKD of cashing in on students’ problems
Dehradun, December 8 She said the political leaders of the UKD began meddling in the institute’s affairs after the institute decided to shut the gate that was used by the residents living adjacent to it. “A local leader of the UKD living in the vicinity had resented the move and since then he has been spreading carnage against the institute and the Director,” said Dalmia. While speaking with mediapersons today, she said most of the demands of the students were still to be met. “The demand of the students are- renovation of the school building and sports ground, more computers, special laptops for classes XI and XII students and an English speaking teacher. The authorities are working towards fulfilling them,” she said. She said the party was playing a dangerous game by inciting the students who are being misled to believe in the political propaganda. “All our efforts to hold talks with the students have failed and if the logjam persists we would be requesting the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to depute someone to break the logjam,” said Dalmia. With students unwilling to hold confabulations with the authorities and rejecting, the Director was even contemplating requesting the Ministry of Social Empowerment to depute an interlocutor to break the logjam. Besides, the strike by students that has put a question mark on the credibility of the Director, Dr RS Chauhan, who retired from the institute some time back, has also leveled charges of misappropriation of funds against her. He has even informed the NHRC and the Union Home Ministry about it. However, the Director has rejected these charges.
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Heated discussion at DMC meeting on waste management
Dehradun December 8 Councillor Raj Kumar said the SWM team was not collecting garbage from houses for three to four days in many wards and was still charging Rs 40 from each household in slum colonies, though it had been directed to charge subsidised rates in such pockets and was given Rs 5 crore by the DMC. Other Congress councillors demanded not to give the next 15 wards to the company unless it improved it’s functioning in the current lot of 15. The Mayor rebuked Raj Kumar for not bringing up the matter of shortcomings in the SWM to him when he could get things improved. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Sushil Kumar said if the work of the SWM company was not found satisfactory, the DMC might consider giving the contract to some other firm. Sanjay Gupta, councillor of Turner Road, too, earned the wrath of the Mayor when he said the works in his ward were being facilitated by Congress MLA Dinesh Aggarwal, not by the DMC. The Mayor said he should separate his ward from the DMC, and directed to put the decision of segregating his ward in the minutes of the meeting. Serious discussions took place on the issues of legalising slum colonies and house tax. About the former, it was decided to send the matter to the state government once again so that the 129 unauthorised slum colonies could be legalised whereby people could avail ownership rights and other benefits. For self-assessment tax, which is to be levied on 48,000 new residences included in the ambit of the DMC, a new committee was constituted which would look into the policy and fix the rates from different perspectives. A public hearing will be held from December 15 to 20, after which a meeting of DMC officials will take place on December 24 to further deliberate on the policy. Abut the illegal hoardings, it was decided not to allow hoardings to be installed on roads, walls or roofs against the prescribed parameter, even if they belonged to the ruling party. Some councillors raised objections on the prolonged period of giving contracts for construction and manning bus stops along with advertisement revenue for 20 years and demanded a decrease in the time line to 15 years. The matter has been kept pending. An amended policy will also be prepared to review and hike the licence on shops, restaurants and eating outlets by the DMC. The policy would be framed on the lines of Delhi and Mumbai. An amount of Rs 60 lakh was fixed for the development work to be done in each ward.
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Gentlemen Cadets told to uphold Indian Army ethos
Dehradun, December 8 He congratulated all the young Gentlemen Cadets for choosing this noble profession and asked them to keep updated and ready for all types of challenges. He said: “Henceforth you are going to be the brand ambassadors of a legacy. You are going to be part of the noblest strata of society. You are going to command instant trust and respect, by virtue of your uniform. That is a rare privilege, and a rather difficult one to live up to. It imposes on you social and ethical responsibilities”. The Indian Army is respected for being apolitical, chivalrous, brave, dedicated and selfless. These are the values all officers must uphold, and the ethos should guide every action of theirs. He said: “Let me tell you that your sensitivity shall reflect in your interactions with your troops and civilians as well, apart from your seniors and peers. It shall reflect in your treatment to the rich as well as the poor, the powerful or the powerless, the educated and the illiterate, during war and peace. Your behaviour shall be constant, because you have been through a training and regimen which is based on character, values and ethics. He summed up this theme with a quote from Gen Peter J Schumacher, former Army Chief of Staff, US Army,: “We are, have been and will remain a values-based institution. Our values will not change, and they are non-negotiable. Our soldiers are warriors of character. They exemplify these values every day and are the epitome of our spirit. They are the heart of the Army.” The reviewing officer emphasised virtues such as courage, fortitude, loyalty, comradeship in arms which is true brotherhood of soldiers. He complimented the Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor and the faculty for moulding the Gentlemen Cadets into a very fine future young officers. The parade marched to the tunes of ‘‘Sare Jahan Se Achacha Hindustan Hamara”. On a successful completion of pre-commission training, a total of 615 Gentlemen Cadets and eight Gentlemen Cadets from friendly foreign countries will pass out from the IMA on December 10.
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Jute-based industries
Dehradun, December 8 Inaugurating the workshop, chief guest and Director of Industries, Uttarakhand, GC Pandey asked the women to take full benefit of the government schemes meant for promoting jute-based cottage industry in the state. He said there was an increasing trend in the demand for jute products and thus, prospects for the industry were very good. Pandey appreciated the committee for imparting training to rural women in manufacturing of jute products. He reminded that raw materials today were being provided by the government agencies and the women self-help groups needed to train themselves to turn these raw materials into products. Committee’s secretary Sunita Dharia said the workshop aimed at encouraging women from the unprivileged sections to avail livelihood opportunities through jute-linked cottage industries. She said the committee has been organising awareness programme on jute services from time to time. Assistant Director, Jute Board, Delhi, Kisan Singh Gutiyal assured all assistance to women self-help groups taking to the jute cottage industries in the state. BS Sajwan, Project Director, Department of Rural Development Authority, Uttarakhand, and RS Yadav, Manager, District Industries, Dehradun, were other prominent speakers at the workshop. Members from women self-help groups from Doiwala, Jogiwala, Miyanwala, Raipur and Premnagar participated in the workshop.
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Eco conference to focus on wildlife corridors
Dehradun, December 8 The hosts, Wildlife Savers Society and Tiger Protection
Group, in association with the Uttarakhand Forest Department will be
holding the conference that will focus on introducing the concept of
using green infrastructures to re-connect fragmented wildlife corridors
in Uttarakhand. According to Aditya Singh, Secretary, Wildlife Savers
Society, the conference in particular will focus on eight crucial
wildlife corridors between the river Yamuna in the north-west of
Uttarakhand to the river Kosi in the south-east of the state. He
disclosed that the Uttarakhand Forest Department and Wildlife Savers
Society are working together to address the problem of habitat
fragmentation. “A committee of wildlife experts from the Uttarakhand
Forest Department, the Wildlife Institute of India and Wildlife Savers
Society has been working for the past one year and prepared an initial
report identifying all the crucial elephant corridors between the Yamuna
and the Kosi and recommended green infrastructure solutions and other
regulations for strengthening the surviving corridors”, he
said. “The Eco Engineering-2011 conference intends to lay a
foundation for a long-term solution to the problems arising out of
habitat fragmentation, thereby ensuring the peaceful co-existence of
wildlife and humans in this landscape for posterity”, he added.
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56 get employment at ‘rozgar mela’
Dehradun, December 8 He said while Spanco company gave appointment letters to 30 youngsters, another Shiva InfoTech provided employment to a total of 26 youngsters. He said the today’s mela was the second one organised by Dehradun Employment Exchange recently. “We plan to bring more companies to such melas to provide more job opportunities to the local youth,” Ajay Kumar said. Ajay also called upon the youth to develop entrepreneurial skills rather than depending on government jobs. He also revealed that the employment exchange was also providing typing and other types of training to the youth from unprivileged sections of society.
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IMA conference begins tomorrow
Dehradun, December 8 According to Dr Mahesh Kuriyal, organising secretary, the event will see extensive academic deliberations from renowned state and national faculty from Medanta, the medicity at Gurgaon. A medical camp by the doctors from Medanta will also be held on December 10 at Combined Medical Institute (CMI) Hospital in collaboration with the Dehradun unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
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Amba Eleven Cricket Club triumph
Dehradun, December 8 The Amba Eleven Cricket Club won the toss and chose to bat first. The team scored a total of 128 runs in 20 overs. Sonu became the highest scorer, hitting 27 for 17 balls. From opponents, Sumit and Madhur clinched two wickets each. In reply, the Sarafa Mandal Cricket Club were all out for 112 runs, losing the match by 17 runs. Ankur (32) was the highest scorer from his side. Sonu became the highest wicket taker, claiming 3 wickets for the Amba Club.
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Honours shared in tennis tourney
Dehradun, December 8 Yuki Bhambri and Vishnu Vardhan of the ONGC and Divij Shaarn and Vishnu Vardhan of the corporation reached the semi-finals of the men-individual events of the tournament. Yuki Bhambri defeated Mohit M Jayaprakash of the corporation 7-6(7-5) 6-2, Divij Sharan of the corporation beat Vijay Kannan of the ONGC 2-6; 6-0; 7-5, Sunil Sipaeya of the corporation beat SV Abhishek of the ONGC 6-4; 7-5, and Vishnu Vardhan of the ONGC beat Kaza V Sharma of the corporation 6-1; 6-1 to enter the semi-finals of the tournament.
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Kaushik stresses insurance cover for hill people
Haridwar, December 8 The minister pointed out that rural people too needed to avail themselves of the insurance benefits and get their lives secure. Both the government and the private sector should look into this aspect, he added. Kaushik was speaking at a function organised by the insurance major Bajaj Allianz here recently. Swami Sharadpuri was the special guest. Pointing out that nowadays the concept of joint family is fast vanishing and fast-paced life throwing more risks, Swami Sharadpuri said secure investment like insurance cover needed to be advocated.
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Man behind 5 thefts nabbed
Dehradun, December 8 Another accused, Mukesh Kumar, is yet to be traced. Station officer Amarjit Singh said the accused was caught on Tuesday during vehicle checking when he was driving a stolen motorcycle. Cash and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh was recovered from his possession. He was taking those jewellery and silverwares to sell off. Kapil, a hardened thief, remained behind bars for nine months in 2009 for stealing 12 vehicles. After he was set free in June this year on bail, he took to stealing once again and was found involved in five theft cases at Nehru Colony, where he lived.
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