ITBP jawans using ropes to reach higher posts
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, February 29
Ropes are being used by ITBP personnel to cross the 10-km-long route between Garbiyang to Gunji to reach higher posts as the way to Gunji from Garbyang has been damaged badly due to heavy snowfall, according to ITBP sources.

“The 10-km-long track route between Garbiyang to the base camp of Gunji has been damaged at six places due to the snowfall this year. Due to this damage, we have deputed our rescue team to help cross ITBP jawans, who are traversing between lower bases and higher pickets at the Indo-China border,” said Atul Kumar, an ITBP officer.

According to ITBP sources, the way is seldom used by villagers as their villages are situated at higher Himalayan reaches of this area. Besides, during winters they come to the lower areas of the of the valley. “As only ITBP personnel are plying on this route, our rescue team is not facing difficulties as the jawans crossing the route are already trained in rescue operations,” said an ITBP officer.

“The information of this damaged route has been given to us by ITBP officers and our engineers will start repairing this route after the snowfall stops completely on these reaches,” said J.S. Rawat, PWD Subdivisional Officer in Dharchula.

On the agenda
DGP readies wish list for new govt
Rajeev Khanna

Nainital, February 29
The Uttarakhand Police has a wish list ready for the new government that will assume office in the state after the counting of votes on March 6. Replying to a query raised by The Tribune, Director General of Police (DGP) JS Pande has stated that the prime concern of the force is to improve upon its mobility aspect.

“The issue of mobility needs to be addressed in accordance with the budget and the resources available. We want that the clearance should be given to the pending Travel Allowance and Daily Allowances. It needs to be understood that the mobility of the force is very high. Another way of addressing the concern can be allocation of expenses for petrol,” he pointed.

Another issue he pointed out pertained to the recruitment of Sub-Inspectors. He stated that since a large number of personnel in the constabulary was graduate, the quota for the promotees could be raised.

Right now, 50 per cent are recruited directly to the post while 50 per cent are promoted from the constabulary. The DGP said the number of promotees could go up to 75 per cent.

He pointed out that the state government had also agreed to the grade pay increase for constables. While those constables who are intermediate pass will be given an increased grade pay, the remaining are being given educational training and will be eligible for a higher grade pay after taking an exam.

He further pointed out that the police force in the state was moving towards modernisation and efforts were being made to improve the communication network.

He said the emphasis was now on providing mobile phones from the department to the constable level.

An interesting project on which the work is going on is the Crime Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS). A proper data base is being developed to track down people in context of an event. Pande said the software for the purpose was being developed. “Munshis and Sub Inspectors are being imparted training in basic computer applications. The Internet connectivity will soon be provided either through the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) or the National Informatics Centre (NIC),” he disclosed.

The DGP further stated that another ambitious programme that the force had undertaken was regarding the DNA profiling. Although at a nascent stage, the project involved creation of a data base of DNA profiles which would go a long way in working out cases of crime.

U-22 Asian Cup qualifier
Football players allege discrimination in selection
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
Members of the football fraternity here are unhappy with a short cut adopted by the All-India Football Federation to select national players for the coming U-22 Asian Cup qualifier. The federation has released 64 names for the selection trails to be conducted by its technical director Rob Baan and head coach, Youth Development, Colm Toal.

Leaving two players from the Tata Football Academy, the rest of them are from the India League clubs. The way the federation has ignored states without the India League club has surprised football lovers.

The federation will be conducting selection trials for the inaugural U-22 Asian Cup-2013, the qualifiers of which kick-off on June 23. Sixty four players will be attending the trials.

LP Thapa, associated with city football website www. DehradunFootball.com, said, “North India was the worst affected by the federation’s move. Leaving Simla Youngs FC, none of the clubs operating in this part of the country is playing in the India League and India League (second division). If states like Punjab, HP, J&K and Uttarakhand have failed to attract any India league club in their region, the players should not be allowed to suffer.”

The Chandigarh Football Academy and the JCT Football Academy operate in North India and both have carved a name for themselves in Indian football by producing many talented players. People have little information about Maharana Pratap Sports College located in Dehradun.

This sports college has produced a player like Manish Maithani (currently attending national camp in Dubai). Even in last year’s under-16 SAF Football Championship, two Dehradun boys were in the Indian side.

This indicates that there is ample talent in North India, but the area requires attention from the federation.

Former Indian player Amar Bahadur said: “Every player should get equal opportunity. Indian League players should not be treated as a special race.”

It would have been a better idea for the federation to ask state football associations, where no I-League clubs exists, to recommend under-22 players. But the process was ignored and leaving a stray, all I-League players were invited to the trails.

The entire process also puts a question mark over the seriousness of the federation on developing grassroots football in India. I-League clubs are not an ideal substitute for state associations. The need of the hour is to develop a database of sports hostels and colleges operated by different state governments.

The federation should help sports hostel and colleges in developing the training programme to groom footballers.

On February 16, trails were conducted to select boys for the FIFA-AIFF regional academies in Delhi. There was no information about the trails on the federation’s website. This denied boys from outside Delhi to attend the trails.

In the past, talent spotters used to visit football centres all round the country to pick up talented footballers. This trend no longer prevails. The absence of such system has created a big hurdle for talents from small towns and villagers to make their entry into big clubs.

Tuskers destroy crops; Forest Dept sleeps
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
The elephant menace has disturbed the day-to-day life of villagers of the Nepali farm area falling under the Dehradun forest division of Uttarakhand. Pachyderms are frequenting the area resulting in the destruction of wheat crop of farmers. Rajesh Chauhan, one of the residents of Kairikala village that is part of the Nepali farm area, said his crop had been destroyed by elephants.

“There are 5 or 6 elephants active in the Nepali farm region. These elephants are responsible for large-scale destruction of our crop in the past one week”, complains Rajesh.

He said the villagers had now been forced to awake all night to guard themselves against any possible elephant attack as these elephants had come so close the human settlements.

Another resident Rajendra Adhikari said he had abandoned the cultivation of sugarcane due to frequent destruction of the crops by elephants.

“Sugarcane crops are affected the most as elephant highly prefer consuming this crop”, he pointed out.

The aggrieved farmers alleged that they got little response from the state Forest Department despite the repeated destruction of crops by elephants.

The farmers asserted that there was no mechanism on part of the department to provide prompt compensation to the affected farmers.

However, Dehradun Divisional Forest Officer Meenakshi Joshi said the Forest Department understood the gravity of the problem as the entire Nepali farm region had been affected with elephant menace for long.

She said the forest guar ds held frequent patrols in this area and also reached the affected site on getting any information linked to elephant attack.

“Human life is always our first priority”, Joshi observed.

Ensure uninterrupted power supply, demand consumers
Suggest hike in power tariff in accordance with income
Tribune News Service

Nainital, February 29
The power consumers in Kumaon have sought that the Uttarakhand Power Corporation first ensures an uninterrupted power supply with no voltage fluctuations before there is any move towards revising the power tariff structure in the state.

The view of the consumers became apparent during the recent public hearings conducted by the Power Regulatory Authority at a couple of places in Kumaon over the past few days.

During the hearings, Authority Chairman Jagmohan Lal took up the matters pertaining to the proposed production and distribution for the next financial year.

At a meeting held in Rudrapur, the consumers, including a large number of entrepreneurs, got more than 30 suggestions registered with the authority. It was made clear that before initiating a hike in the power tariff, the Power Corporation needs to ensure that the consumers get an uninterrupted supply of power. In addition to this, it was demanded that proper voltage in the supply of power be maintained. The consumers are also of an opinion that due responsibility be fixed on the officials for dealing with the problems that continue to arise with regard to the power supply in the region. Apart from this, more technical staff needs to be deployed to address the issues on the technical front.

Lal apprised the participants of the hearings on the activities of the authority and said the corporation had placed a petition before the authority and had proposed a revision in the power tariff for individual consumers. He pointed out that the views of the common people were being taken on the issue of an increase in the power tariff and hearings were being held across the state on the issue.

In a meeting held at Rudrapur, the president of the Kumaon Garhwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KGCCI) had related the problems being faced by the industry on the power front. He had clarified that proper power supply was a must for the industry and it must be provided in accordance with the norms set for them.

The individual consumers had taken up the issue of long unscheduled power cuts, particularly in the rural areas with the authority. They had also pointed out to the frequent problems arising out of voltage fluctuations. A suggestion was made that the power tariff be hiked in accordance with the income of an individual consumer, as this would not put too much economic burden on the poor consumers.

Novices’ boxing event at RIMC
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
Novices’ boxing competition was held at Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) between the freshers here today.

A total of 36 bouts were held today. The results are as follows:

30-33 kg: Winner: Cadet Shreshth Gupta: Runner Up- Cadet Harshit Armarkar

33-36 kg: Winner: Cadet Arpit Garg; Runner-Up: Cadet Shivam Negi

36-39 kg: Winner: Cadet Kunal Kumar; Runner-up: Cadet Ishaan Trivedi

39-42 kg: Winner: Cadet Raghav Vaid; Runner-up: Cadet Lalit Kumar

Winner: Cadet Kunal Singh; Runner-up: Cadet Parth Gupta

Winner: Cadet Shivam Kumar; Runner-up: Cadet Shivam Bansal

Winner: Cadet Deepak Gupta; Runner-up: Cadet Divyam Dwivedi

Winner: Cadet Seoul Tripathi; Runner-up: Cadet Nishant Vishwakarma

Winner: Cadet Anuj Saxena; Runner-up: Cadet Arunabha Chakraborty

42-45 kg: Winner: Cadet C Rakesh; Runner-up: Cadet Prem Jyoti

Winner: Cadet Mridul Rawat; Runner-up: Cadet Pandit Vikas

Winner: Cadet B Liansanga; Runner-up: Cadet Sumit Raj

45-48 kg:: Winner-Cadet Abhijeet Tomar, Runner Up-Cadet Ajay Jospeh

Winner: Cadet PY Shreevatsava; Runner Up-Cadet Mukul Kumar

Winner-Cadet Omkar Dalvi; Runner Up-Cadet Kshitij Jayant

Winner-Cadet Rohan Basnet; Runner Up-Cadet Prasad Jadhav

Winner-Cadet Sahil Yadav; Runner Up-Cadet Ashish Pandey

Winner-Cadet Ravi Ranjan; Runner Up-Cadet Kartikeya Anand

48-51 kg:: Winner-Cadet Akash Ghose, Runner Up-Cadet Ulhas Bhadouriya

Winner-Cadet Punit Jatrana; Runner Up-Cadet Yashodhan Isher

Winner-Cadet Kushagra; Runner Up-Cadet NS Kumar Singh

Winner-Cadet Nirbhay Kumar; Runner Up-Cadet Anmol Shreevastava.

Uttarakhand cops made aware of their rights, law
Tribune News Service

Nainital, February 29
Director General of Police (DGP) JS Pande has undertaken an initiative to sensitise his force on their rights and limitations in accordance with the work being done by the Uttarakhand State Legal Services Authority. Pande has stated that the awareness material being brought out by the Authority would be circulated among the personnel of the police force that would help them understand their role in society and the ongoing social processes in clear terms.

Talking to mediapersons here, Pande said: “They need to know how and where they are restrained by the law. There is a lot of material on domestic violence, dowry, animal welfare etc that would be circulated amongst them. It is a normal practice of making them aware during their training about the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) but the exercise is a clichéd one. Law should be used for reference and coercive powers should be used with restraint.”

Asked how he plans to address the dual issue of sensitising them on restraint while keeping the morale of the force high, he said that the police personnel need to understand their role clearly. Asked about the fallout of the government’s decision to withdraw the cases in the Kaladhungi incident of 2009 in which an irate mob had burned a police post along with a police official, he said that the police was a gate keeper and the entire system had a role in such matters.

He said that the government had the power to withdraw cases and in this case, the persons charged with violence and arson were not hardened criminals. “We cannot insist on it,” he said.

Replying to another query with regard to the police resorting to wrong measures, Pande pointed that he had been telling his subordinates not to distort evidence to secure convictions. He further stated that it had been observed that very often registration of FIR is used to harass a person. He also disclosed that no undue pressure is being exerted on the subordinate staff to work out cases of crime.

Complete drinking water projects by March 25: DM
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
District Magistrate Dileep Jawalkar held a meeting regarding availability of drinking water and sewerage work-related activities under Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project in the city

today. He directed the concerned officers to complete all the ongoing projects related to drinking water by March 25 and take swift action to acquire land where ever land was not available. Additional District

Magistrate (E) was directed to identify the government land in this regard.

The sewerage disposal work is progressing at four locations in the city at Indranagar, Salawala, Jakhan and Vijay Colony. This project has started and civil work is also expected to start soon.

The proposed sewer pipe has been laid in these inter-linking areas. The sewerage processing work has also started at allocated land behind Doon University. The project of laying sewerage line will be completed in March in the area.

The DM also directed to provide the assessment figure of ground/surface water in the urban/semi-urban area of the district.

The report would also include the shortage of surface water and water level in tubewells in the past 10 years.

The analysis will help the administration to gauge the water availability in comparison to the increasing demand for water by year 2025 and 2050.

Pithoragarh lecturer gets best woman scientist award
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, February 29
For her contribution in the field of fisheries, Dr Kum Kum Shah, senior lecturer, PG College, Pithoragarh, has been awarded the best woman scientist award by the Applied Zoological Research Association of India in Cuttack, Orissa, last week.

The award, which is given annually to the best woman scientist of the country, has been named Dr Jagdiswari Rao Woman Scientist Award.

“I was inspired by the former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. In 1997, I had been working with the Defiance Agriculture Research Laboratory under the DRDO when Dr Kalam had visited our laboratory and called upon scientists to use the field of their respective disciplines,” said Dr Shah.

Dr Shah was also honoured by the Indian Academy of Environmental Scientists recently. The Gorakhpur University has awarded an honorary fellowship of the university to Dr Shah.

“During my brief stint as a junior scientific assistant at the DARL, I focused on studying the adaptability of three exotic and three Indian fish species to different altitudes in Uttarakhand,” he said. Already having four awards to her credit, Dr Shah says she has managed to fulfil her dream of making fisheries as a source of livelihood for the rural youths.

Miscreants thrash forest officials
Flee with rifle, 10 cartridges
Tribune News Service

Undelivered Postal Ballots
Railways, Dept of Posts to blame: BJP
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
The BJP (central) general secretary and Uttarakhand election in-charge, Dharmender Pradhan, today held the Railways and the Department of Posts responsible for undelivered postal ballots. He was speaking at a press conference here.

“Both these departments are under the direct control of the Central government and we have already requested the Election Commission to examine their role with regard to undelivered postal ballots. We fear the Congress has hatched a conspiracy to influence the election results,” Pradhan said.

He alleged ministers belonging to the Congress had openly violated the model code of conduct in Uttar Pradesh and now they were trying to 
vitiate the atmosphere in Uttarakhand.

Pradhan said the Congress was trying to create confusion regarding the postal ballots as it was facing a humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections. “Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat had written a letter to the Uttarakhand Electoral Officer on February 3 demanding that the postal ballots received after January 30 be declared invalid. This forced the Election Commission to issue a clarification that the postal ballots would be received till March 6, before the start of the counting of votes at 8 am. It is surprising that Harish Rawat was not aware of the technicalities pertaining to postal ballots,” he said.

Pradhan said the Congress was trying every trick to undermine the office of the Election Commission that was committed to conducting free and fair elections. “As postal ballots are likely to decide the fate of the candidates in several constituencies where the BJP had a strong presence and the winning margin may be thin, the Congress is trying to create confusion on the issue,” he added.

The BJP today held a workshop for the party candidates and the election in-charge about the postal ballots.

Wave in favour of BJP: Pradhan
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
Lending weight to the BJP’s probable victory in the January 30 Assembly polls, general secretary of the BJP Dharmender Pradhan today said the high polling percentage recorded in these elections was a clear indicator of a pro-incumbency wave favouring the BJP.

Giving his own take on the high voter turnout, Pradhan said going by the past Assembly election results in Delhi, Bihar and Gujarat where the poll percentage was quite high, there was a perceptible shift towards the incumbent government. “In my opinion, it may be repeated here as the polling percentage was 70. This kind of voter turnout is usually in favour of the establishment. Usually anti-incumbency voter turnout remains in the range of 60-64 per cent,” said Pradhan.

Pradhan also highlighted the absence of anger displayed by the voter against the ministers who are now using their official vehicles after the relaxation of the model code of conduct. “It is business as usual for most of the ministers who fought the elections; if the people had voted against them they would have ventilated their anger,” he said.

The general secretary also said that according to his assessment, the party that emerges on top would get at least 40 seats. “It would be a clear majority,” he said.

However, Cabinet Minister Prakash Pant, who fought the election from the Pithoragarh Assembly seat, differed from Pradhan and said the BJP would romp home winning 32 seats and 15 from the Kumaon region.

Together for the first time after the January 30 polls, some of the BJP party nominees looked elated and confident of their victory while others wore a sombre expression.

On the one hand the top party leaders sounded confident about the party’s victory in the elections, however, they could not dispel the anxiety towards the fate of the postal ballots.

While Chief Minister B.C Khanduri took centrestage at the workshop on postal ballots, former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank preferred to make an appearance soon after the Chief Minister left.

Samples of edible oil, ghee collected

Dehradun, February 29
The Food Safety Authority collected four samples of edible oils and ghee from the wholesale market here yesterday to check adulteration of food items in view of the forthcoming Holi festival.

A team led by an officer of the Food Safety Authority, Uttarakhand, GC Kandwal, collected four samples of edible oils and ghee from Arhat Bazaar and Saharanpur Chowk. These would be sent to the Rudrapur laboratory for analysis. “We will launch similar drives in the city before Holi so that shopkeepers could be dissuaded from selling adulterated material. During Diwali last year, we had collected samples from the Arhat Bazaar and Saharanpur areas,” said Kandwal.

Earlier the food samples were sent to Shimla for testing, but a laboratory began functioning at Rudrapur in the state from October last year. This laboratory would help in getting quick results, which usually took 14 days. — TNS

Prowling leopard shot dead
Our Correspondent

Mussoorie, February 29
The prowling leopard, who had spread terror in and around Mandra village in the Gansali block of Tehri Garhwal district, was shot dead by famous hunter Lakhpat Singh Rawat last night.

The leopard had killed a five-year-old girl two weeks ago and following which the villagers had urged the Forest Department to eliminate the prowling beast.

The Forest Department officials said the villagers demanded help from hunter Lakhpat Singh Rawat. Rawat after the recce of the area for several days shot dead the leopard in the Ghansali forest area late last night.

Trapped leopard released in Kansro range
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 29
A leopard which was trapped in the Salawala region, Dehradun, last night was released in the Kansro range of the Rajaji National Park today.

The Salawala region has been affected with the leopard menace for the past couple of months.

To curb the menace, the state Forest Department has put up cages in the region. At 11 pm yesterday, a leopard got trapped in one of the cages. It was today released in the Kansro range today.

Panic had gripped the residents of the region as this leopard had killed a number of stray dogs and livestock.