Dehradun, February 23
The demolitio4n drive of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) to retrieve its land in slum colonies at Brahmawala Khala and Jakhan has once again come to a halt. The DMC has to stop its anti-encroachment drive every time due to protests by slum-dwellers, interference by local politicians and the connivance of officials with encroachers.

Before the Assembly elections, a DMC team led by Additional Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (AMNA) Harak Singh Rawat razed 45 houses in Brahmanwala Khala. However, another drive to demolish about 150 houses was not initiated due to political pressure. Another demolition drive scheduled for February 13 was stalled following a protest by residents. The anti-demolition drive in the Jakhan area met with the same fate after a large number of slum-dwellers protested at the DMC office and the Secretariat.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli said, “Those who have been living in any area for the past 15-20 years cannot be evicted as they have been provided with electricity and water connections, voter and ration cards. But the DMC can remove fresh encroachments. Property dealers and land mafia have mushroomed in illegal colonies.” Some local politicians have allegedly helped people to encroach upon government land and build houses on them.

Rawat said the anti-encroachment drives had failed due to indifference on the part of the higher authorities and non-cooperation by the police. And even when evicted the encroachers returned to reoccupy the land.

However, in some cases the DMC had been able to retrieve its land. It had removed encroachment from three bighas at Himjyoti School near Sahastardhara, one hectare near the Haridwar bypass, which is now being used for a solid waste management project, a large farmland where a burial ground is being built, 15 acres in the Shankarpur area and land in Niranjpur where now BSUP flats were being built for the poor. It had also removed encroachments in the Rajpur, Brahmanwala Khala and Jakhan areas.

Rawat said the officials concerned had to seek permission from an SDM or ADM under the law for evicting encroachers and demolishing illegal structures. The affected person can appeal against the order in the district courts and the high court. Normally, the officials concerned did not follow the complicated procedure and carry out demolitions with the help of the local police.

The Mayor said the Central government had selected Dehradun under its “Slum Free City” scheme under the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana. “Some 60 quarters will be built near Doon University as a pilot project for poor people and a nominal rent will be charged from them. Many such housing projects are in the pipeline.” While 75 recognised slum colonies existed in the city in 1998, the count has now risen to 129. Otherwise, there are 600 colonies, including unrecognised, in the city.

Dehradun, February 23
To promote sports and adventurous activities among youngsters, Secretary (Youth Welfare) Ajay Kumar Pradyot today inaugurated a 10-day districtwise training camp on White Water River rafting here at Shivpuri, Rishikesh.

Inaugurating the camp, Dr Pradyot stressed on training youths to deal with disaster through adventure activities in the state. He exhorted young rafters to seek training as well as participation at national level and promote water activities all over the country.

Giving information about the training, NN Pandey, in charge of the training programme, said, “Today on the first day, rafters were given training on the details of white river rafting, precautionary measures and required first aid.”

“Rafting training will be held at Shivpuri where youths from all over the state will participate and benefit from the camp. Youths will be trained not only in rafting skills, but swimming and other rescue tactics as well”.

“This training camp, organised by Youth Welfare experts, will boost the morales of the students,” he added.

However, on the following days of the training camp, rafters will be given information on water sports and rapido rafting, usage of rafting equipment, including raft, kayak, life jacket, helmet, guide pedal, raft pedal, throw rescue bag, air pump and many more followed by related seminar.

Rafters will perform exercise related to white water river rafting followed by river rafting rescue exercise. 

Haridwar, February 23
In a major embarrassment to the Shravan Nath Jawaharlal Nehru College management, today the students’ annual meeting had to be cancelled after major opposition from students owing to lack of infrastructural facilities and shoddy condition of the playing ground.

Students led by college union council chief Prerna Kainthola, who intervened in the midst of inauguration ceremony when college trustee Mahant Ramandpuri ji Maharaj and principal Avneet Kumar Ghildiyal were presiding at the dais.

Meanwhile, taking stock of the athletic ground venue, which was in shoddy condition as sewer water had flowed along with pebbles, glass pieces, bottles and garbage on to the ground was seen still lying here and there and could have posed a threat to the participating players.

Participating athletic students objected and a ruckus was created at the very stage itself as Prerna Kainthola accused college sport committee chief Kulshrestha of misusing funds allocated for the meet.

Taking cognizance of the complaint, Mahant Ramandpuri along with complaining students inspected the ground conditions, which he found pathetic and unplayable.

Later, he cancelled the annual meet, giving college principal a day’s time to ensure the ground was well prepared for the meet by tomorrow.

Talking to TNS, Prerna Kainthola said that this was the 50th year of the college, but it seemed nothing had changed as even garbage was not cleaned up at the ground, while thousands of rupees had been provided by the organising committee in the name of preparations.

“If any player would have got hurt, then who would have been responsible? There are many players who participate in state and national level events and if we provide them such shoddy facilities, how can we hope they will excel at that level,” asked Prerna, who is the first girls’ chief of the college.

College principal AK Ghildiyal admitted that due to short time notice of the athletic meet organising committee, the authorities had very little time to prepare the ground and provide students the requisite sporting gear.

He hoped that by tomorrow morning the ground will be fully prepared as per the meet requirements.

Students also alleged that the college despite being a renowned one had no single sports coach, which is making students prepare and learn by themselves only which is having an impact on their overall performance.

To this, college management said that by the next academic session a full-time specialist coach will be hired by the college. 

Dehradun, February 23
Central Academy for State Forest Service’s one-day workshop aimed to finalise the modalities of collecting information for ascertaining the effectiveness of training courses was held in Dehradun today.

Inaugurating the workshop, Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests RBS Rawat emphasised on the need of including contemporary and relevant issues like wildlife management, man-animal conflict, forest management through communities in the courses.

He also discussed some major initiatives taken up by Uttarakhand Forest Department in forest management. Meera Iyer, lecturer, CASFOS, Dehradun, informed the gathering about in-service training modules developed for SFS Officers under the project. Yutaka Kawashima, Chief Adviser, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), gave an overview of the project and feedback received from participants of the in-service training courses. He emphasised upon the significance of high evaluation of the courses by the participants.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, Ashish Rawat, Principal, CASFOS, Dehradun, explained that it is the first attempt in in-service training for SFS officers by CASFOS to conduct post-training monitoring to ascertain long-term effectiveness of the training. He said post-training monitoring was definitely useful for evaluation and further improvement of in-service training modules for SFS officers. Director, Forest Education, Dr Dharmendra Verma, expressed his gratitude to all the participants for helping in finalising the questionnaires and checklist for on-site interview, which, he said, will definitely benefit the post-training monitoring immensely. 

Dehradun, February 23
In a bizarre incident, five police personnel were injured and two department vehicles torched when angry villagers tried to prevent police and state Forest Department officials from arresting some persons who were in possession of leopard skins.

In a joint operation, Uttarakhand police and forest officials seized five leopard skins from a village in Dharasu area of Uttarkashi on Wednesday late evening. But shortly thereafter local villagers gheraoed the police and even assaulted some of them. They even took back the leopard skins from the possession of the policemen.

Today in the morning, the police, however, managed to arrest eight persons for violation of the Wildlife Protection Act and some for disrupting government work and damaging government property. Uttarakhand Forest and Environment Advisory Committee vice chairman Anil Baluni confirmed injuries to five policemen. Out of the five policemen hospitalised, two have sustained serious injuries. He said the police officials are now searching for the skins and other culprits?.

Dehradun February 23
Swati Negi, member of the NSUI and student of DAV PG college protested before the office of District Magistrate, demanding safety for the students in various educational institutions of the city.

She demanded strict action against those responsible behind the explosion at the Raipur Sports College and assistance to the injured students.

She questioned the delay in punishing the accused involved in the killing of coach Bahgwan Singh in the same college.

Her other demands included safety arrangement for those students who study in colleges situated near highway and proper supervision at Army Firing Range, Raipur.