Sports competitions mark Srijan-2012
Dehradun, February 27
The students of the Dolphin (PG) Institute of Bio-medical and Natural Sciences are in high spirits during the ongoing weeklong fest, Srijan-2012, on the college campus. Various activities and interdepartmental sports competition are the highlights of the fest. A large number of students are participating in the events with great enthusiasm.

Students participate in a tug-of-war contest during the annual week celebrations of the the Dolphin (PG) Institute of Bio-medical and Natural Sciences in Dehradun on Monday.

Pratap house leads in RIMC quiz contest
Dehradun, February 27
The first phase of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) Inter-section quiz was conducted here with great zeal and enthusiasm here today. The quiz consisted of nine gripping rounds which enthralled both the quizzers as well as the audience. The rounds conducted were science and technology, current affairs, literature, sports, environment, RIMC, audio, video and buzzer rounds.

New degree course in Himgiri Zee varsity
Dehradun, February 27
Professor Vinod Aggarwal of Himgiri Zee University said here today that the university was commencing a new course, Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Professional studies. He said the degree course would provide holistic competence at the professional front, enabling students to seek job directly after completing the course.

Graphic Era, Uttarakhand Police triumph
Dehradun, February 27
The Graphic Era University cricket team and the Uttarakhand Police won their respective matches in the 60th Dehradun District Cricket League Tournament played here today.

IPS team defeat IAS players
Dehradun, February 27
The Indian Police Service (IPS) team defeated the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) team in the Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, which was organised here at Abimanyu Academy by Hero Honda.


State DGP JS Pandey receives the winning trophy of a friendly cricket match between IPS and IAS officers played in Dehradun on Sunday.

Bird-watching camp concludes
Dehradun, February 27
A three-day bird watching camp was organised at Corbett’s village-Chhoti Haldwani by the eco-tourism wing of the Department of Forest, Uttarakhand, from February 24 to 26 to generate awareness of birds among forest personnel and tourists. The camp included bird watching sessions as well as lectures.

Participants at a bird-watching camp organised by the eco-tourism wing of the state Forest Department at Chhoti Haldwani near the Jim Corbett National Park on Monday.

Mussoorie, February 27
A 14-year-old girl, Aasha, who was admitted to Landour Community Hospital in a critical condition after food poisoning died here today.

Besides, other members of the family, Azadi Lal, Anita (12), Anjali (11) and Sumit (10), belonging to Thaan village in Jaunpur block of Dhanolti have also been admitted to the hospital and one member is recuperating in the village.

According to the police, the incident of food poisoning occurred when a son of Azadi Lal bought a rotten chicken from a hawker who visits the area every Saturday. After eating the rotten meat, the whole family complained of vomiting and dysentery and when the situation did not improve, Azadi Lal and his family members with the help of villagers were rushed to Landour Hospital in Mussoorie.

Doctors tried to save Asha, daughter of Azadi Lal, but she died around 11 am today. The police, when informed, arrived at the hospital and took the body of the deceased in its custody and post-mortem will be conducted tomorrow.

Dr Mohapotra, speaking to the media, said the family members were still in a critical condition. The doctor confirmed that it was a case of food poisoning. Dr Mohapotra also said they had reported the matter to the police as it was a case of negligence on part of the hawker who sold the rotten chicken to the family. The condition of the two members of the family was reported to be serious and they had been referred to Doon Hospital in Dehradun.

The villagers are angry at the vendor who sold the rotten meat and demanding his arrest immediately. Many such hawkers buy the dead chicken from poultry farms in Dehradun and Vikas Nagar and sell it to innocent villagers of the Garhwal region. 

Mussoorie, February 27
Maria Gomez, a woman of Delhi, was thrown into a deep gorge near Sia village on the Mussoorie-Kempty road yesterday night by five persons known to her. Later, they abducted her 5-year-old son and fled in the vehicle on which they had come for holiday together.

However, Maria was saved after her distress calls were heard by residents of Sia village who rushed the injured woman to St. Mary’s hospital in Mussoorie.

She sustained several injuries on her head but is out of danger. The police has registered a case and informed the Delhi Police regarding the matter and is on the lookout for the five persons which included two women.

Maria, narrating the incident to the media, said she had accompanied the persons from Delhi as she had known them for the past two years and they used to visit each other’s house frequently.

She further said they first visited Haridwar yesterday. From there they headed for Mussoorie to visit Kempty Fall. While they were returning from Kempty Fall, the driver of the vehicle stopped it at Sia village on the roadside and asked Maria to step out and pose for a picture.

While one woman was taking picture, the driver pushed her into the gorge and absconded with her son in the process. Maria fell into the gorge but clung to a tree thus saving her life.

Otherwise she would have fallen around 10,000 feet down into the Aglar river.

The Kempty police station in charge SC Rana said the woman was not in right frame of mind but the case had been registered against the five and the hunt for her son was on. 

Dehradun, February 27
The medical education department’s project of setting up 13 training centres for nurses is expected to take off this year.

The department has already received a no-objection certificate and financial sanction for the construction of 13 auxiliary nurses and midwives (ANM) schools, general nursing and midwifery (GNM) schools and BSc nursing colleges in different districts of the state.

To replicate the Kerala experiment in Uttarakhand, the department had planed to set up ANM centres at Bageshwar, Champawat, Tehri and Rudraprayag, GNM centres at Nainital, Pithoragarh, Haridwar, Chamoli and Uttarkashi, and BSc (nursing) colleges at Pauri, Almora, Tehri, Pithoragarh and Chamoli.

Under the 13th Finance Commission, Rs 100 crore was set aside for the construction work. A total of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for GNM schools each and Rs 5 crore for the ANM schools.

“It will help us replicate the Kerala experiment that not only has a well-trained medical and paramedical work force but has also been able to improve the immunisation status and other health indicators in the state,” said Vinita Kumar, Principal Secretary.

The government has already set up five GNM, ANM and nursing colleges in the state. 

Dehradun February 27
The campus of DAV PG College is abuzz with enthusiasm and festivity as the college celebrates its students union week.

Today, on the third day of the fest, traditional Garhwali songs played by folk artistes were the main highlights.

Boys and girls danced to the tunes of popular folk songs of Garhwal, Kumaon and Jaunsar, while teachers also enjoyed the musical notes on the occasion.

Meanwhile, two boys clashed during the programme for unknowingly hitting each other while dancing. There are no report of injury or complaint about the two with the police as cops deployed on the spot settled the fight.

Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi inaugurated the programme and offered flowers to Goddess Saraswati. Accompanying him was the BJP’s city president, Punit Mittal, and Dr Devender Bhasin, principal, DAV College.

Addressing the students, Ganesh congratulated everyone for being a part of the prestigious college and appealed to them to maintain the glory of the college. 

Dehradun, February 27
The students of the Dolphin (PG) Institute of Bio-medical and Natural Sciences are in high spirits during the ongoing weeklong fest, Srijan-2012, on the college campus.

Various activities and interdepartmental sports competition are the highlights of the fest. A large number of students are participating in the events with great enthusiasm.

Vipul Garg, Dean, Student Welfare, said, “The preparations made by students for a smooth progress of the programme are worth appreciation,” he said.

The college would organise a fair on March 1, which will include dance events, drama and sining competitions.

Dehradun, February 27
The first phase of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) Inter-section quiz was conducted here with great zeal and enthusiasm here today. The quiz consisted of nine gripping rounds which enthralled both the quizzers as well as the audience. The rounds conducted were science and technology, current affairs, literature, sports, environment, RIMC, audio, video and buzzer rounds.

The overall section standings were as follows-

Pratap-55 points, Ranjit-40 points, Chandragupta-30 points and Shivaji-20 points.

The cadets representing the respective sections were as follows:-

Pratap- Cadet Prakhar Kaushik, Cadet. Abhijeet Vaish, Cadet. Rishav Saha and Cadet. Lalit Kumar.

Ranjit- Cadet. Piyush Panwar, Cadet. Prince Robin, Cadet. Anshul Kumar and Cadet. Ishan Trivedi.

Shivaji- Cadet. Nishant Rana, Cadet. Chetan Kumar, Cadet. Sourabh Thorve and Cadet. Vikas Bharadwaj.

Chandragupta- Cadet. Vishal Shaw, Cadet. Rishav Raj, Cadet. Sachin Kumar, Cadet. Arpit Garg.

The quizmasters of the event were-

BS Chauhan, Rakhi Chamola, UP Dalvi, Kamal Gupta and Ruchi Datta.

The computer in charge were-T Selven and 
Neeraj Negi.

The time keepers of the event were- Cadets Mohd Salman and Atul Tiwari

The Overall coordinator of the event was PK Sharma. The jury consisted of CS Vishwakarma, DN Thapliyal and PN Naik.

Chief Guest of the event was Col. Pankaj Kumaria, Commandant, RIMC. He praised the high standard of quizzing at the RIMC. He encouraged the cadets to excel further and further improvise their standards. 

Dehradun, February 27
Professor Vinod Aggarwal of Himgiri Zee University said here today that the university was commencing a new course, Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Professional studies. He said the degree course would provide holistic competence at the professional front, enabling students to seek job directly after completing the course.

Informing further, he said, “The university is now ready with adequate infrastructure to extend the courses. We are also contemplating the establishment of centres for IT and distant learning courses at all 13 districts of the state this year, particularly helping the students in remote areas.”

The course will begin in June.

Dehradun, February 27
The Graphic Era University cricket team and the Uttarakhand Police won their respective matches in the 60th Dehradun District Cricket League Tournament played here today.

In the first match, Graphic Era University defeated University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) by two wickets.

Graphic Era University won the toss and put the UPES team to bat first. The UPES team made 223 runs for six wickets in 30 overs. Sachin Bahl was the top scorer with 76 runs. He was ably assisted by Neelesh who scored 51 runs.

Shobhit Pundir took three wickets for 39 runs. In reply, the Graphic Era University team scored 224 for eight wickets to win the match by two wickets. Opener Deebanshu scored a brilliant century, scoring 103 runs to steer his team to victory.

In the second match, the Uttarakhand Police cricket team beat Sardar Bhagwan Singh Institute of Para-medical Sciences, Balawala, by 152 runs.

Batting first after winning the toss, the Uttarakhand Police piled up 280 for eight wickets in 35 overs. Openers Harsh and Aasish scored 86 and 72 runs, respectively, for the police team. Adarsh took three wickets for 37 runs for the Balawala team.

In reply, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Institute team was all out for 127 runs in 32.4 overs losing the match by 152 runs. Shahid was the top scorer with 20 runs. Vijay took four wickets for 14 runs for the police team.

Dehradun, February 27
The Indian Police Service (IPS) team defeated the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) team in the Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, which was organised here at Abimanyu Academy by Hero Honda.

The IPS team won the match by scoring 123 run on 9 wickets. Deputy Inspector-General, Garhwal Range, Sanjay Gunjiyal, was declared the man of the match and IPS officer Nilesh Anand Bharne bagged the trophy for best baller.

The IAS team won the toss and scored 122 runs. Principle Secretary, Home, Utpal Kumar, was chosen the best fielder and IAS officer Birjesh Sant the best batsman.

Later, IPS turned the match in their favour by scoring 123 runs.

Dehradun, February 27
A three-day bird watching camp was organised at Corbett’s village-Chhoti Haldwani by the eco-tourism wing of the Department of Forest, Uttarakhand, from February 24 to 26 to generate awareness of birds among forest personnel and tourists. The camp included bird watching sessions as well as lectures.

Dr Raman Kumar and Dr Malvika Onial of the Nature Science Initiative, who conducted the camp, described various aspects of bird watching and birds. They informed participants on general bird watching, bird morphology, bird behaviour, migration, bird calls and identification methods of birds.

A field guide “Uttar Bharat ke Pakshi” was distributed to all participants and field staff. Amitabh Joshi, Deputy Range Officer from the eco-tourism wing, coordinated the camp.

The camp had 23 participants. These included seven frontline staff from the Ramnagar Forest Division, three local nature guides from Ramnagar, eight members of the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti Community-based Tourism Activities and four visitors.

The participants visited various habitats of birds in and around Corbett Village, Chhoti Haldwani, Sitabani, Pawalgarh and Baur 
and Haripura Reservoir, Gularbhoj.

The participants spotted 143 species of birds during the three-day camp. Grey-winged blackbird, yellow bellied fantail, lemon rumped warbler, northern pintail, northern shoveler, pallas’s gull, great slaty woodpecker, great hornbill and maroon oriole were some of the attractions.

Rajiv Bhartari, Chief Conservator of Forests Eco-tourism, distributed certificates to the participants on the conclusion of the camp. He asked the forest staff to practise bird watching on a regular basis. Rajkumar Pandey, President of the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti,

and participant of the camp, said these types of camps were very beneficial for the local guides and also added value to the community-based tourism activities in the area.

Koushik Bhattacharya, wildlife photographer and participant of the camp, said the main attraction of this camp was lectures along with field trips.

Bird-watching camp at Chhoti Haldwani is the second in the series. Each camp is organised on weekends for three-day from Friday to Sunday and is conducted by experts in ornithology. The next camp is going to be organised at Marchula on the ourskirts of the Corbett Tiger Reserve from March 9 to 11.