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Schools for SC, ST children face paucity of funds, infrastructure
Assembly poll results to test BJP move to field new faces
Congress blames Khanduri for corruption
Poor condition of grain storage worries Alva
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Meets prisoners in open jail
Two held in dhaba owner’s murder case
Removal of boulders begins on Khiarna-Kwarab stretch
Provide toilet, water facilities in schools: DM
Need to focus on sports other than cricket: Experts
Employees resent ban on union activities
Traditional medical treatment still in vogue
‘Buddhi-shuddhi’ yajna for Chidanand Muni
Work expected to gain pace in Champawat, Chamoli
UKD (P) to enrol 14 lakh members
Varsity to increase strength of B.ED faculty
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Schools for SC, ST children face paucity of funds, infrastructure
Pithoragarh, February 27 These schools in the
Rudrapur, Gadarpur, Khatima Bageshwar, Baluakot and Munsiyari areas of the Kumaon region are on the verge of closure due lack of infrastructure and government funds. “The grant per student per year given by the government for uniform and study material is meagre to provide students with uniform and books,” said Devendra Singh
Deva, in-charge of a school at Munsiyari in Pithoragarh district. A school in Bageshwar was opened 31 years ago but as it had no building the students studied in an old age home. “We had sent an estimate of Rs 3 crore for the construction of the school building but the government had sanctioned only Rs 25
lakh,” said NS Gasyal, District Social Welfare Officer, Bageshwar. The number of students in these schools has also not increased. Though a new building was constructed for the school at Jaiti in Almora district at a cost of Rs 1.5
crore, it was closed in the year 2008 due to fewer students. “The building of Jaiti school has been handed over to Kasturaba Gandhi Residential Girls School and the staff has been shifted to other schools,” said Chandra
Chauhan, District Social Welfare Officer, Almora. Lack of teachers is another reason for the reluctance on the part of the parents to send their children to school. “There were 140 students in the school at Baluakote in Pithoragarh district 10 years ago, but this number had come down to 70 as 10 posts of teaching and administrative staff had been lying vacant for long,” said a school in-charge. The school at Munsiyari is facing a similar fate as it is functioning without electricity and a sufficient number of classrooms. The number of students in three schools in Udham Singh Nagar is also decreasing due to lack of sufficient staff and their proper maintenance. “Due to insufficient number of classrooms we have only 57 students studying in five classes in Rudrapur school. The people are now sending their wards to newly opened public schools where the children could learn English as well,” said Chandra Kant Gupta, superintendent of the school in
Rudrapur. |
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Assembly poll results to test BJP move to field new faces
Dehradun, February 27 The Uttarakhand BJP played a gamble in the elections and denied ticket to 12 sitting MLAs and fielded 32 new candidates. However, if the voter turnout is any indicator, the BJP stronghold of Pauri district may give mixed results to the party. The highest poll percentage of 72 was recorded in the Kotdwar Assembly seat, followed by Srinagar (59.65), Yamkeshwar (56.12 ), Landsdowne (53.05), Pauri Garhwal (53.80) and Chaubattakhal (51.91). The BJP fielded new candidates in Pauri (SC), Srinagar and Landsdowne. Political analysts say going by the voter turnout, lack of support for the new candidates was quite visible and this may hurt the chances of the BJP. In the last elections, the BJP had won six of the total eight Assembly seats in Pauri district. But due to the delimitation exercise the number of seats were reduced to six and the new Chaubatakhal seat was created. The BJP fielded new faces in Yamunotri, Badrinath, Tharali (SC), Karnprayag, Ghansali, Tehri, Dhanolti, Chakrata, Dharampur, Rajpur (SC), Ranipur, Bhagwanpur, Jharbera, Khanpur Mangalore, Haridwar (rural), Pauri, Srinagar, Landsdowne, Dharchula, Gangolihat, Dwarahat, Jageshwar, Lohaghat, Champawat, Lal Kuan, Nainital, Haldwani, Jaspur, Bajpur, Rudarpur and Khatima. The voting percentage in these seats was Yamnotri (77.4), Badrinath (63.97), Tharali (SC) (59.8), Karnprayag (59.8), Ghansali (53.53), Tehri (55.94), Dhanolti (71.08), Chakrata (75.24), Dharampur (62.3), Rajpur (60.98), Ranipur (68.79) and Bhagwanpur (79.86). The political analysts say in the absence of a discernible wave in favour of any party the selection of the candidates could prove to be the deciding factor. The BJP had fielded new candidates even on some seats that it had won in the last elections. “In several Assembly segments the voter turnout was exceptional though the BJP had fielded new candidates there. It may augur well for the BJP,” said BJP Uttarakhand president BS Chuphal. |
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Congress blames Khanduri for corruption
Dehradun, February 27 In a statement issued here today, Surender Kumar
Aggarwal, spokesperson of the Uttarakhand Congress, said the Congress had been charging the state BJP government with various acts of omissions and commissions during the past five years but the irregularities that had come to notice in various departments like the
PWD, the Industrial Development and Housing headed by the Chief Minister had finally exposed the state
government. Aggarwal said the technical inquiries in the various projects costing above Rs 5 crore had brought out these irregularities in these departments. He further said the BJP which had been crying hoarse over the alleged corruption during the previous Congress state government stood exposed. He demanded that the Chief Minister should apologise to the people of the state. On the issue of BJP allegations about postal ballots, Aggarwal said due to vigilance by the Election Commission, the BJP gameplan to manipulate postal ballots in its favour had completely failed this time. “The BJP allegations are nothing but a burst of anger and frustration at the failure of the ‘expertise’ of Khanduri in manipulating postal ballots,” he said.
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Poor condition of grain storage worries Alva
Nainital, February 27 Addressing experts during the 46th annual convention of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers and an international symposium on “Grain storage” at the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology at Pantnagar today, the Governor expressed concern over the poor condition of grain storage in the country. “Post-harvest, losses in foodgrains are about 10 per cent. In fruits and vegetables, these are estimated to be 20 to 25 per cent of the production,” she said. Alva said India’s annual production of foodgrains had increased from 50 million tonnes in the 1950s to 250 million tonnes in 2011-12. “As against about 75 million tonnes of storage requirement, we have about 40 million tonnes of storage capacity in the organised sector,” she added. The Governor called upon the scientists to work towards reducing the post-harvest losses from about 10 per cent to 2 per cent of the production. “If we can do this, there will be net additional availability of 20 million tonnes of foodgrains per year, which is enough to feed about 80 million people,” she underlined. Referring to the problems encountered in foodgrain storage, Alva pointed out that warehouses and godowns were not designed to take care of temperature fluctuations, moisture, control of insects, rodents, gaseous composition and ease in handling. The Governor underlined that India has made a rapid progress on all fronts. “In agriculture, our annual production of foodgrains has increased. The number of tractors has gone up from a few 100 to about 4.2 million during this period. Similar progress has been achieved in the production of fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, milk, fish, eggs and so on. Yet we face daunting challenges magnified by an ever-increasing population, price instability of agricultural produce, farmer distress, migration from rural to urban areas, degradation of land and water quality, drudgery of farm women, especially in hilly areas and so on. Landholdings of farmers have gone down considerably,” she said. Stating that nearly 60 per cent of the Indian agriculture is rain fed, she pointed out that yet it produces about 40 per cent of the cereals and 80 per cent of the pulses. “It is true that agricultural engineers and scientists have developed several technologies for water harvesting, conservation and efficient utilisation. However, the big problem is that most of these technologies are still beyond the reach of common farmers,” said Alva. She underlined that farm machinery is very useful for ensuring efficient farm operations, reducing the cost of cultivation and drudgery and increasing productivity. “Machinery also raises the status of farmers while improving his/her skills. The most commonly used technologies on Indian farms developed indigenously are: tractors, power threshers, irrigation pumps, power tillers, harvester combines, sugarcane planters, sprayers, dusters, horticultural tools etc. However, a large number of farmers, particularly in rainfed and dryland areas and hilly and tribal areas, are yet to benefit from these technologies. I will, therefore, appeal to all of you (experts) to intensify efforts to reach out to these sections in the next five years,” she added. She pointed out that: “The use of energy in agriculture also needs special attention. Commercial electricity and petroleum-based systems need to be made more efficient and affordable to farmers.” She said solar energy which was in abundance in the country needed to be harnessed. Solar driers, solar lights, water heaters, farm fencing, microwave towers, refrigerators, cold storages and various other operations could be energised through solar radiation. In his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Dr BS Bisht, stated that in this era of globalisation, the role of advanced farming equipment in enhancing agricultural production was very important. The chairman of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers, Dr Gajendra Singh, and the secretary, Dr Indramani, informed the audience about society’s activities. The Governor also inaugurated a small farm technology unit at the university. |
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Meets prisoners in open jail
Nainital, February 27 She interacted with the prisoners lodged in the jail and enquired about the medical facilities, food and if they were allowed to meet their relatives or not. When the issue of release of prisoners having spent more than 14 years in prison was raised, she said the issue would be taken up with the officials once she is through with the inspections of various jails in the state. Alva asked Inspector-General of Prisons Bhaskaranand Joshi to furnish a list of prisoners from the state being lodged in various jails of Uttar Pradesh. She said she would take up the matter pertaining to the protection of their interests with her counterparts in Uttar Pradesh. During her inspection, she saw the products being manufactured by the inmates and ordered that proposals for the construction of a prison for women and carrying out high quality agricultural activities be prepared and presented to her with regard to the open jail which has an availability of large area. The Governor also met the relatives of the prisoners.
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Two held in dhaba owner’s murder case
Nainital, February 27 According to information, the accused, who were in a state of inebriation at the time of the incident, allegedly
killed Kailash Singh when the latter asked them to pay for a tumbler broken by them while they were drinking at his
dhaba. They were arrested from near Chaiti Mod following a tip-off.
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Removal of boulders begins on Khiarna-Kwarab stretch
Nainital, February 27 The road between Khairna and Kwarab has been closed for the vehicular traffic from today till March 5. Officials said the traffic movement has been closed on the stretch and the pedestrians have been asked to travel by the route on the other bank of the Kosi river. The officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are attempting to remove the boulders that are hanging precariously in the chronic slip zone that has come into existence near Jaurasi ever since the rain-related disaster had struck the region in September 2010. Since then, there have been frequent landslides and rockfall. The traffic movement on the road below the slip zone is extremely dangerous as the boulders can come down anytime. The landslides and rockfall have continued round the year since the disaster had struck the region. Since November last year, a large number of police personnel and workers of the Public Works Department (PWD) have been deployed there to start clearing operations whenever there was a landslide or a rockfall. These landslides had been leading to massive traffic jams that took several hours to clear. Over the past three months, the vehicular movement on the stretch between Khairna and Almora was prohibited during the evenings. Officials say after the removal of the boulders with the help of heavy machines like excavators, there is a plan to build a wall of stone blocks as a long term measure to check the frequent landslides and falls. A proposal in this regard worth Rs 30 lakh has been sent to the Centre. It is learnt that the authorities have already spent Rs 10 lakh for clearing of the debris that has been coming down frequently since September 2010. Officials say while the stretch between Khairna and Kwarab would be closed till March 5 for carrying out the removal work, the travellers heading towards Almora would either have to take the route via Ranikhet or Ramgarh. Those going via Ramgarh would have to travel 20 km extra and the buses being run by the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation would have to shell out extra Rs 28. Similarly, those opting to go via Ranikhet will have to travel 40 km extra and pay Rs 54 more while travelling by bus. Officials of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) have warned those running the business of shared taxis that strict action would be taken against those taxi drivers who indulge in fleecing of passengers. This being the Holi festival season, a large number of people would be travelling over the next few days and it is expected that with the Khairna-Kwarab road being closed, the taxi owners and those operating jeeps would indulge in fleecing the passengers. Representatives of traders from the Jaurasi region have expressed their reservations about the administration taking the road repair operations at this point of time. They said the villagers would be facing a lot of problem during the festive season, as they would have to walk long distances while the road would be closed for traffic. Even the shopkeepers would be facing problems in the transportation of goods to their shops. This road serves as an artery to the hilly terrain of Kumaon. It is used for the transportation of people and essential commodities to the districts of Almora, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh.
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Provide toilet, water facilities in schools: DM
Nainital, February 27 Garbyal gave the order at a meeting of the officials of the Education Department held at his office today to review the implementation of various schemes. He took stock of educational and other facilities being provided in the schools in accordance with the Supreme Court order. The District Magistrate ordered the block and district-level officials present at the meeting to expedite the construction of new school buildings so that children could be provided better education. He told them to ensure that “learning becomes an interesting exercise for the students and the teachers come up with innovative educational tools that help in bringing down the rate of school dropouts”. Garbyal asked the Block Education Officers (BEOs) to inspect schools in their areas at regular intervals. He said besides checking the progress of construction activities this would also ensure regular attendance of teachers in schools and bring them (schools) a good name. Various other issues like proper implementation of the mid-day meal scheme, Right to Education (RTE), annual work plan for the next financial year, community training under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, condition of toilets and drinking water supply in schools and the status of Gram Nidhi accounts were discussed at the meeting. District Planning Officer RC Purohit, Additional District Education Officer BN Singh, District Education Coordinators Gopal Singh Gaida and Dr Satish Bhatt were among those who attended the meeting. |
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Need to focus on sports other than cricket: Experts
Haridwar, February 27 A majority of speakers expressed this view at the inaugural session of the function of the annual sports meet of Shravannath Math Jawaharlal Nehru College here today. The experts, who dwelt on the topic “Indian Sports and its Achievement”, said both sports administrators and fans needed to look beyond cricket and other popular sports like lawn tennis where despite a mediocre performance sportspersons were hailed as icons by fans and the media. College principal Avneet Kumar Ghildiyal said in hockey India had won a record eight gold medals, but now we felt happy on just making it to the qualifying round. Mahant Bilkeshwar Maharaj emphasised on the need for having sports as a regular subject in educational institutions, “as healthy mind and body lead to the overall development of students”. Aarti Sharma, a state-level athlete, said girls opting for sports was still not taken in the right spirit in rural and suburban areas and the girl students even faced difficulties playing for the college a few years ago. Dr SK Batra said China and Australia bagged the maximum number of medals in Olympics in table tennis, badminton, rowing, judo, archery, canoing, cycling, handball, fencing, sailing and water polo by dint of hard work for years together and India needed to replicate this success story. President of the college students union Prerna Kainthola, besides physical education and sports experts also put forth their views. The athletics meet would begin on the campus tomorrow. The annual sports meet of the college was cancelled on February 23 due to the poor condition of the playground. For the past three days ground clearing work and levelling and preparing of the athletics track were done on the directions of the college trustees. Kainthola had complained to the trustees about the poor condition of the college ground.
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Employees resent ban on union activities
Dehradun, February 27 Sacked union leaders criticised Principal Secretary , Health, S. Ramaswamy for bringing the 108 services under the most essential services and banning strikes and union activities at the 108. It may be mentioned here that in December 2011 the field staff of the 108 services had gone on an indefinite strike demanding absorption in government services. This forced the management of 108 services to sack the strike staff and take stern measures. The services are being run under the public-private partnership in the state. Roop Singh, a member of the Dev Bhoomi EMT Pilot Welfare Association, has dubbed the government move as repressive and not in consonance with the labour laws.
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Traditional medical treatment still in vogue
Pithoragarh, February 27 Such medical formulas, written on ‘bhojpatras’, are in abundance in the region and are still being used by the people residing in remote villages. One of such families in Surkhet village of the Thal area of the district has reveals their treasure of traditional medical formulas, written on ‘bhojpatras’ to the media here today. “We have 250-year-old local medical formulas based on mantras like devi jagaran, najar kawatch, yantra and tabeej mantra, and on local herbs. These formulas are written on bhojpatras with locally-developed ink,” said Chandan Singh Mehta, who practises traditional medical system. Mehta said the tradition of treating people with various ailments by local herbs or mantras had been prevalent in their family for three generations. “Our grandfather, Pokher Singh Mehta, used to write these local medical formulas on bhojpatras, which are available in the Munsiyari area,” said Mehta. “In those days, people were dependent either on the Ayurvedic medicines extracted from local herbs or on mantras for treatment. We have a collection of both the therapies written on bhojpatras,” said Mehta. He further said after his grandfather death, his father, Himmat Singh Mehta, continued the practise. “People in our area still believe in these formulas as the modern medical services are yet to reach us,” said Mehta. He said people still visited them for treatment through these traditional methods. He stated a few other families in the area were also practising it. “As the government has failed to provide sufficient number of doctors and medical staff in the dispensaries opened in remote areas, the people either depend on local deities or locally-developed medical formulas even today,” said a vaidhya, practising traditional medicines to treat the patients of his locality.
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‘Buddhi-shuddhi’ yajna for Chidanand Muni
Haridwar, February 27 The yajna was organised under the aegis of the Teerth Purhoit Yuva Sabha. Chief of the youth wing of the sabha Ujjwal Pundit condemned the action and alleged that Chidanand Muni was doing this for his vested interests. He alleged that Chidanand Muni was also bringing celebrities to his ashram to gain the media’s attention. Pundit further said the ritual of ash immersion was being performed at Har-ki-Pauri in Haridwar and Sati Kund at Kankhal for centuries. Maa Chamunda Devi Mukti Andolan Samiti coordinator Sunil Sharma pointed out that even Bhisham Pitamah had performed the last rites of his father at Ganga Dwar in Haridwar. He urged the saint community of Rishikesh practising this ritual there to refrain from any such act that hurt the age-old traditions. Though Chidanand Muni has kept silent over this issue, support has been pouring in for him from various quarters in Rishikesh. Banke Bihari of the Gau Sankalp Trust, Rishikesh, said though Haridwar has its importance since ages but it was not necessary to immerse the ashes there only. Chidanand was not doing any unethical act. Sanskrit students of various institutions have also come out in support of Chidanand Muni. The Ved Maha Vidyalaya authorities also flayed the statement by teerth purohits that Chidanand Muni was doing this for his personal interests. They cited references in favour of their city (Rishikesh) where ash immersion had been done in the past too.
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Work expected to gain pace in Champawat, Chamoli
Dehradun, February 27 The BADP is under way in the districts of Champawat, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Udham Singh Nagar and Pithoragarh. Under the BADP, provisions have to be made for education, health and rural development for districts that fall in the border areas. For this financial year, Pithoragarh district received Rs 572.95 lakh and was able to spend only Rs 30.12 lakh while Chamapawat district managed to spend Rs 108.15 lakh out of Rs 217.83 lakh allocated to it. The district of Uttarkashi utilised Rs 157.92 lakh out of Rs 8,522 lakh allocated for the programme.
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UKD (P) to enrol 14 lakh members
Dehradun, February 27 Addressing mediapersons at the party office today, party president Trivender Singh Panwar said the party had decided to provide membership to 20,000 people from each constituency at a meeting of working committee which was held a day before. This way the party was targeting to enroll 14 lakh new members in the next one year. The membership drive will start from April 1 and continue till March 31 next year. There will be a chairperson for each unit in 70 constituencies of the state. He said, “The party is preparing itself for the elections at three levels, local bodies, panchayat and legislative assembly in the state. Beside that, we are looking forward to the Parliament elections in 2014 and the next Assembly elections in the state in 2017.” He said those candidates who got less than 3000 votes in this Assembly elections would not be given a chance to contest elections again. “It was also decided at the meeting that the party strategy will be decided after counting by the president of the party which will be accepted to all members of the party. At present, we have decided to sit in the opposition. Besides, in second possibility, we will also appeal the dissidents and independent candidates to join hands with the UKD (P) rather than the BJP and the Congress to form a government in the state.” He, however, denied having any alliance with the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM). “The URM has proved the biggest spoiler in our endeavours to form a regional front so there is no possibility to have any agreement with it on any platform, not even post-election scenario,” he said. |
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Varsity to increase strength of B.ED faculty
Dehradun, February 27 Addressing media here today, Sunil Aggarwal, secretary of the association, said, “The B.Ed and BPEd courses, whose academic session has been delayed by a year, is losing the number of admissions, resulting in migration of B.Ed aspirants to other states.” “There were no admissions for the B.Ed course in 2010. The 2011-2012 session would begin this year and would extend the entire admission process till the month of November, resulting in a delayed session again. Therefore, we have proposed university to regularise the course and scrap the delayed academic year 2011-12 to avoid further inconvenience,” he added.
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People belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Kumaon region are reluctant to send their children to ashram padhyati
vidhyalayas. These are boarding schools and have been opened to provide education to the poor children belonging to the SC and ST families.
These schools in the
Rudrapur, Gadarpur, Khatima Bageshwar, Baluakot and Munsiyari areas of the Kumaon region are on the verge of closure due lack of infrastructure and government funds.
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva today inspected the Sampoornanand open jail and the newly-constructed central jail in Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar district.
She interacted with the prisoners lodged in the jail and enquired about the medical facilities, food and if they were allowed to meet their relatives or not.
The need of the hour is to focus on those sports which do not draw sponsors but do bring a bagful of medals in global championships like Olympics,
Asiad, Commonwealth Games and other international championships. India won one gold medal in rifle shooting only in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
In protest against the performance of the immersion of ashes by people at Rishikesh under the guidance of Parmarth Niketan Ashram head Chidanand
Muni, Haridwar-based teerth purohits and pandas organised a ‘budhi-shudhi’ yajna for him at Har-ki-Pauri today. They maintained that this action was against the Hindu customs.
