Don't imitate western culture: Shaswati Sen
Dehradun, April 19
Calling upon students not to imitate the western culture, famous Kathak dancer Shaswati Sen today floored the students with her scintillating dance performance and earthy wisdom.

UPCL chief Jain removed
Dehradun April 19
Managing Director (MD), Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, (UPCL) AK Jain has been removed by the state government. Director, Operations, AK Johri has been appointed as acting MD.

Dehradun April 19
Shikha Verma, a second-year student of General Nursing and Midwifery Course at the Combined Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (CIMSR) at Kuanwala in Dehradun, was killed after she was hit by a speeding mini-truck today. Shikha, a resident of Niranjunpur, was taking a turn to 
enter the college in the morning when the accident occurred. She had been the topper of her class for the last two years consecutively.

Shikha remained on the road in a pool of blood for 30 minutes but institute principal Vijaya Shanthi did not arrange for an ambulance and instead rebuked the students who requested her to take injured Shikha to hospital. The loss of crucial time led to the death of Shikha on the spot. Some students took her to hospital with the help of local residents but the doctors there declared her brought dead. The Doiwala police has arrested the mini-truck driver and impounded the vehicle.

The students, angry at the indifferent attitude of the college authorities, gathered at the CMI Hospital, the parent body of the CIMSR where Shikha’s body was kept. The traffic on the road to the hospital was diverted and only ambulances were allowed to enter the hospital. A police team was deputed to defuse the situation and calm down the students.

The students burnt the effigies of the Principal and the director of the institute, GS Jadhaun, and demanded their resignations.

Meanwhile, City Magistrate Mehrbaan Singh mediated between the students and the Chairman of the institute, RK Jain, and a fax regarding resignation by both principal and director of the CIMSR was handed over to the students after three hours.

The students doubted the signature of the principal on the fax shown as Vijay Shanti instead of Vijaya Shanthi. They also demanded that the principle be produced before them and made to apologise for her mistake. She should also sign the resignation letter before them. However, the last demand was refused. The local administration announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Shikha’s family.

Student leaders from local DAV College offered mediation but were restrained by CIMSR students. Some local leaders were seen talking to students.

Meanwhile, Shikha’s father, Roshan Lal, was crying inconsolably over her daughter’s death. He has two sons, one elder to Shikha. Roshan Lal said he never knew that their life would be devastated today. Until the matter was not resolved between the students and the CIMSR chairman, the father too could not take the body home. She was cremated in the evening. The students exposed many irregularities going on the CIMSR premises. A student said, “The ambulance kept in the college is being used for personal work of the management. It was not available at the time of the accident this morning. There was no uniform fee structure. Even those living nearby were compelled to pay hostel fee. The four-year course of paramedical and nursing-cum-midwifery are deliberately stretched to five years to charge more money from the students.”

The students also placed a list of their demands, including a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the bereaved family and refund of fees. They also demanded corrective measures with regard to inconsistencies in the working of the institute. Circle Officer, Dalanwala, Shweta Chaubey chided the students to keep their demands confined to the issue as their two main demands of resignation by the principal and the chairman of the CIMSR had been accepted.

The students relented after Shweta called for a police van to arrest adamant students. They later boarded the bus requisitioned by the police to drop them at their institute. 

Dehradun, April 19
Launched two years ago to build a database on unprotected monuments and heritage sites in Uttarakhand, the state project under the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA 2007) has hit the roadblock due to lack of funds.

The project was envisaged to document the heritage sites in the face of rapid urbanisation and encroachment.

A state project coordinator was appointed two years back and he tied up with Doon Research Library and Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalya (Haridwar) for documenting purpose but even before the project could be completed in the middle of 2011, the funds were frozen by the Central Government.

"For the first time, an exercise of taking stock of the unprotected monuments existing in Uttarakhand was initiated. It could have boosted our resource base and even strengthened our efforts to earmark monuments and heritage sites that were not protected by the ASI but still had historical and archaeological significance, but before we could wrap up the project the funding was withdrawn," said Prof MP Joshi, state project coordinator NMMA (Uttarakhand).

While the project lies in limbo, it is not clear if any data from Uttarakhand had been sent to the NMMA database. "No data has so far been provided by the State Project Coordinator to the NMMA," said RN Fonia, Director, ASI, and coordinator of the NMMA.

However, Prof Joshi said they had submitted the initial project report and data. "Whatever, we could do in the short period of time, we have submitted to the NMMA. However, I am still not able to understand why the project was launched in the first place when it had to meet an abrupt end," said Joshi.

Experts say an opportunity to record the diverse cultural heritage in the form of built heritage and archaeological sites has been lost.

"There is an urgent need for a proper survey of such resources and, based on that, an appropriate archaeological heritage resource management and policy can be formulated. It was envisaged that mandate of the mission will be achieved but it has not happened," said a former director of the ASI.

Dehradun, April 19
Calling upon students not to imitate the western culture, famous Kathak dancer Shaswati Sen today floored the students with her scintillating dance performance and earthy wisdom.

"Learn as many languages and get acquainted with as many cultures your heart desires but do not forsake your own culture and tradition. Be proud of what you have rather than aping the western culture. It will always remain a poor imitation," said Shaswati Sen in her inimitable style.

Performing at the Touch Wood School today as part of SPIC MACAY dance tour, the danseuse was grace personified as she shed light on the evolution of Kathak as a dance form.

"It is a blend of temple tradition, courts and domestic celebrations, reaching its zenith under the nawabs of Lucknow," she explained.

She then presented a short composition on Vallabhcharya's creation about Lord Krishna's and his magnetic spell.

"The Kathak dancers narrate stories in the dance form by adding colour through Abhinay and the tales of Lord Rama, Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna are very popular," she said.

Shaswati Sen credited her guru famous dancer Birju Maharaj for adding visual appeal to the dance form that has become popular all across the globe. "Sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the responsiveness of the Western audience, they are keen observers and ask all sorts of questions about the dance," she said.

Coming from a family of Doctors, Shaswati too took up medicines only to give up after she found her heart was not into it.

Dehradun April 19
Managing Director (MD), Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited, (UPCL) AK Jain has been removed by the state government. Director, Operations, AK Johri has been appointed as acting MD.

The government had ordered an inquiry into the purchase of 2000 transformers of 25 KV capacity worth Rs 67 lakh effected on June 11 last year. Serious procedural misgivings were reported in the bidding process and the quality of the transformers too was found substandard.

Besides this, a matter of cable purchase of Rs 4 crore from Rajesh Enterprises too came to light in October where in place of single core 240 sq mm cable, a low quality 120 sq mm cable was purchased.

When the issues were raised about the quality of the cables which suffered from the poor current flow, the orders were issued to the company instead of replacing him.

In the fresh order too, the cables were found faulty. All these purchases were approved by Jain. His tenure was to end in December this year.

Johri, who was in the race of becoming the next MD after Jain's tenure, might be appointed the full-time MD or the state government might bring in someone else for the coveted post.

It is surely to be seen how Johri will tap the open power pilferage and power loss in the power sector. It will also be seen what measures he will take to contain the loss of Rs 2,200 crore in the UPCL. 

Dehradun, April 19
Members of the Uttarakhand Engineers' Association staged a protest at Parade Ground today on the call given by the All-India Diploma Engineers Association. They took out a procession to Secretariat.

The main demands of the members are upgrading the basic grade of the junior engineers, minimum eligibility for diploma course in engineering to be class 12, promotion scale to be fixed at the intervals of 8, 16 and 24 years, constitution of the Technical Commission for Diploma Engineers, same policy for the diploma engineers throughout the country, increase in vehicle allowance by 50 per cent while keeping the inflation in consideration, desired amendment in the Transfer Act 2011 as per the proposal given by the association and land for the association office in Dehradun.

State president Naveen Kandpal said if the Centre or the state government did not fulfil their demands, then they would restart their agitation again. 

Dehradun, April 19
The students of Pestle Weed College celebrated World Heritage Day here today. The celebrations aimed at strengthening and safeguarding heritage sites around the world.

A group power point presentation was also organised on the occasion. Each participating group consisted of four students. They showcased their talent by illustrating on the Wonders of the World.

The Tagore house achieved the highest score for their presentation, visual impact and animation.

The team included Mayank Mishra, Shubhankar Gaur, Aishwariya, Yash Dixit and Akash Arora.

Principal of the college delivered a brief and informative speech and appealed to the students to safeguard the 
monuments and heritage sites. 

Dehradun, April 19
A total of 17 schools participated in the RIMC All-India Hugh Catchpole Inter-School English Debate here today.

The debates were held in parliamentary format wherein each team comprised of four members, three speakers and one reserve speaker.

The participating schools were- St Jospeh’s Academy, The Doon School, Welham Boys, Welham Girls, Hopetown Girls, Unison World School, Convent of Jesus and Mary’s, Wynberg Allen School, Mussoorie, Mussoorie International School, Mussoorie, La Martiniere Girls College, Lucknow, The Scindia School, Gwalior, Assam Valley School, Assam, Vasant Valley School, New Delhi, Sanskar Valley School, Bhopal, Yadvindra Public School, Patiala, and RIMC, Dehradun.

The results of the quarterfinals were as follows-

Winners: St Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun, La Martiniere Boys College, Lucknow, Unison World School, The Scindia School, Wynberg Allen School, Mussoorie, Assam Valley School, Assam, RIMC-A, Vasant Valley School, New Delhi and La Martiniere Girls College, Lucknow.

The judges for the competition were Brig (retd) S Dangwal, Sangeeta Gairola, Sonia Sidhwani, Annie Singh and Verender Kalra.

The Chief Guest on the occasion was Anuradha Dalmia, Director, National Institute of Visually Handicapped, Dehradun.

Dehradun, April 19
A group of Delhi Public School students here visited Bajaj Institute of Learning for Deaf and Dumb.

The students saw the assembly performance by special children and later interacted with them.

As a token of love, DPS presented a set of 100 books for their school library. 

Dehradun April 19
On the second day of the Shri Rohitash Singh Memorial Boys Inter-House Cricket Tournament- 2012, the second match was played between Mandakini House and Monal House where Monal House won the match by scoring 76 runs in The Heritage School in city today.

Shagun Joshi of Mandakini House was adjudged as the man of the match for scoring 17 runs.

Monal House won the toss and preferred to ball. In the first innings,

Mandkini House scored 41 runs at the loss of two wickets. Monal House scored 33 runs at the loss of five wickets.

In the second innings, Mandakini scored 35 runs at the loss of five wickets.

Monal House scored 21 runs at the loss of seven wickets.

In the end, Mandakini House won the match by scoring 76 runs.

The match was umpired by Sachin Jain.

Mussoorie, April 19
The only cremation ground at Garhi Cantonment will be upgraded soon and the Garhi Cantonment Board will assist the Shamshan Ghat Sewa Samiti in its maintenance.

Ganesh Joshi, Mussoorie MLA, stated this during an inspection of the cremation ground here today. He also directed the CEO, Garhi Cantt, Madhukar Nyak, to reconstruct the drain leading to the main Tapkeshwar road.

Joshi announced that he would provide funds for one vehicle for carrying bodies from his Local Area Development (LAD) Fund and the Samshan Ghat Sewa Samiti would manage the vehicle.

He said a community centre would also be built for the residents of Sayyad Mohalla out of the LAD Fund.

Joshi said the cremation ground was in a bad condition and the local residents were facing problems during cremations. Hence, the upgrade of the ground was necessary.

He directed the officials of the agency concerned to initiate proceedings on priority. BJP leader Nandini Sharma, Executive Engineer for the executing agency DS Rawat, 
Assistant Engineer Bhatnagar and Cantonment Board CEO Madhukar Naik and others were present on the occasion. 

Dehradun, April 19
The All-India Tae kwon do Federation Cup will be held in here on April 20 and 22. Addressing a press conference here today, Tae kwon do Federation of India’s secretary-general Jimmy R Jagtiani said it was a matter of honour for Uttarakhand to host such a grand event.

“Being organised by the Uttarakhand Sports Tae kwon do Association under the aegis of the Tae kwon do Federation of India, the event will take place at Pestle Weed College, Dehradun,” Jagtiani stated.

He said 20 state tae kwon do teams had confirmed their participation, including teams from Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

He said Uttarakhand Revenue and Irrigation Minister Yashpal Arya will be inaugurating the event on April 20 and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had given his consent to attend the closing ceremony on April 22.

Jagtiani expressed satisfaction at the rapidly increasing popularity of Tae kwon do in the country.

Joint secretary of the Tae kwon do Federation of India Javed Khan and International Tae kwon do player Hina Habib were also present at the press conference.