Auto rickshaw-vikram owners go on strike
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, May 29
All auto rickshaws-vikrams remained off road today as a part of their strike here. They protested against the impounding of three auto rickshaws that came midway between the entourage of state Governor Aziz Qureshi yesterday.

Notably, last evening after cavalcade of Qureshi was moving towards Dehradun, three auto rickshaws were found crossing the Chandighat chowk on the National Highway-58 within seconds of pilot car leading the Governor’s fleet. Seeing this, Traffic Inspector Virendra Dabral instantly challaned these auto rickshaws and later impounded them.

After passing of the fleet, auto rickshaw union members arrived at the place protesting against the action and the behavior of the police. They created ruckus at kotwali with Circle Officer, Traffic, JR Joshi, intervening and letting off these impounded vehicles.

All auto rickshaws and vikram owners went on strike, demanding an apology from the traffic inspector. All auto drivers, affiliated with various unions, participated in the strike, which severely made an impact on the local transport services in the city.

Satya Narayan Sharma, chief of the city auto vikram union, said every other day, various cases of police bullying auto drivers were coming to light.

Sharma added that until the police administration gives assurance of no such misbehavior from police personnel, they would not start their services. Meanwhile, commuters also faced a lot of inconvenience as there are no local bus services available in the city.

SDM Harbeer Singh said a meeting had been called with the striking auto union members and hoped that strike would be called off by today itself.

Increase number of buses in Transport Dept: Hridayesh
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 29
Uttarakhand Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh laid emphasis on increasing the number of buses in the Transport Department and also to set accountability for the road accidents.

Chairing a meeting of Sub-Committee of Cabinet Ministers, constituted to improve the condition of the Transport Corporation at her Vidhan Sabha office here today, Hridayesh stressed increasing the number of buses and decommissioning old buses. In view of rise in road accidents, a decision was taken to set accountability for the accidents and to improve the conditions of workshops and bus terminus.

The discussion was held on the improvement of hill and plain routes and starting of volvo bus service between main bus terminuses in the state. It was stated that the state government was compelled to bear the losses of the Transport Corporation in the hill areas for public interest.

This was the first ever meeting of the committee constituted to improve the condition of the Transport Corporation. The efforts were made to obtain consensus for running workshops and bus stations on the PPP mode for the improvement of the corporation.

Also present at the meeting were Health Minister Surendra Singh Negi, Transport Minister Surendra Rakesh and Secretary, Transport, Umakant Panwar.

Cong councillors apprise DMC chief of grievances
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 29
A delegation of Congress councillors led by leader of opposition in Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) Ashok Verma met Ashok Kumar, who recently took charge as the new Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) and apprised him about their grievances and issues pertaining to DMC.

The councillors rued about poor quality of electricity material supplied to them.

They also demanded that the workers who clean drains must be equipped with the required equipment before the rainy season began. Verma said the contractors who had not been given the pending amount of Rs 1.5 cr should be paid.

Kumar assured to look into all these issues.

Verma drew Kumar’s attention towards frequent encroachment over land belonging to DMC and urged Kumar to fight such cases actively.

He expressed displeasure at the way the management of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation slept over all these encroachments till late and suspected the connivance of higher rung of the corporation in these matters.

He also suggested to utilise DMC properties for better use by renting them out for various purposes, which would not only augment revenue but also protect them from encroachment. Kumar gave orders in a couple of encroachment cases such as one in Jakhan and Ajabpur Kalan.

He said despite the encroachment, the land continued to be of the DMC.

The delegation also demanded to auction the 49 shops built near the DMC by repairing those which had been damaged for being left in neglect.

Kumar gave directions to give serial numbers to these shops, build a toilet and complete the repair work. He said the corporation would take Rs 20 to Rs 35 lakh as deposit from each of those who would hire the shop and charge nominal monthly rent from them.

Verma urged not to charge high house tax from the freedom fighters or state agitators under the new house tax policy.

He demanded to maintain the old house tax policy, with little bit increase. 

Toppers of high school exams belong to Kumaon
Lokesh Bharadwaj among top 20 in state

Haridwar, May 29
Lokesh Bharadwaj from the district made it to the top 20 Uttarakhand merit list, securing 455 marks out of 600 with a percentage of 91 as the Uttarakhand Board Examinations High school and Intermediate list was released today.

Student of Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Mayapur, Lokesh Bharadwaj, topped the Haridwar district, living up to the tag of the school, which has produced almost for past decade toppers in the state merit list.

Attributing success to parents-teachers guidance and sheer hard work, with faith in Almighty, Lokesh takes one thing at a time and has an intensive approach towards study. Aspiring to crack IIT and IAS examinations, Lokesh followed Anna Hazaare's anti-graft movement and likes to read newspapers, journals and wants to work for overall development of the hilly state.

School principal Vijay Pal Chauhan and teachers Ashok Saini, Rahul Kaushik and Tej Prakash lauded Lokesh's dedication, which has made him topper throughout till date schooling.

In the district merit list Rishabh Lohat (87.4 pc),Indu Kotal (82.4), Chamma Sharma(79.4), Shantanu Garg (79.2) and Kajal Sharma 75.2 made it to the district list.

In intermediate examination result, Shubham Gupta scored 78.6 pc, Saket Saini (77.86), Rishabh Badoni (77 pc), Mamta (76.4), Deepika Anand (75.6) made it to the top list, while in commerce stream Vandana Jain with 76 pc, Gaurav Gera (75.2) and Ashwani Aggarwal (71.4) of Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Mayapur, passed with flying colours. Akanksha Verma of class XII, from Swami Azranand Blind School, Saptsarovar, scored 70 pc, and with today being her birthday, it was more of a memorable day for her. — TNS

Sameer from Ramnagar No. 1 in state
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 29
Uttarakhand Vidyalaya Shiksha Parishad, Ramnagar, today announced it's high school and intermediate examination results for the year 2012. Both the toppers of high school and intermediate examinations belong to the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.

Sameer Rizvi from Government Inter College, Ramnagar, has topped class X examination in the state, scoring 95.80 per cent marks. Aditi Mamgain from Nainital stood second, scoring overall 94.60 per cent marks.

Siddhartha Kumar from Munshiyari in district Pithoragarh and Himanshu Ramola from Rudraprayag got joint third position in the state, scoring 93.80 per cent marks each.

Vaibhav Sharma from Almora got fourth position in the state by scoring 93.40 per cent marks. Saurabh Kumar Chaurasia, Gaurav Joshi and Yugal Bhatt stood fifth, by scoring 93.20 per cent marks each.

In intermediate examinations, Iram Shafi from Jaspur region of Udham Singh Nagar district topped in the entire state, scoring 92.40 per cent marks. Shubham Gupta from Vikasnagar in Dehradun district got second position by scoring 91.80 per cent. Sanjeev Kumar from Bajpur and Gaurav Bisht from Uttarkashi shared the third position, scoring 90.20 per cent marks each.

Naval Kishore Bhandari from Tehri Garhwal scored 89.80 per cent marks and got fourth position. Saurabh Kandwal from Pauri Garhwal got fifth position, scoring 89.60 per cent marks.

Siddhartha, Himanshu bring laurels to Pithoragarh

Pithoragarh: Munisiyari School shines as its student Siddhartha Kumar acquires third position in the state by getting 93.8 per cent in high school examination after Uttarakhand board results for high school and intermediate were declared today.

According to District Education Officer of Pithoragarh, 10 students in high school examination and 9 in intermediate examination from the district were listed in the merit of first 25 students in the board examination. "Our student from Dayanand Vidya Mandir, Himanshu Joshi, acquired 8th position in the state in intermediate examination by getting 87.60 percent," said District Education Officer Mukul Sati.

According to the education officer, besides Siddhartha Kumar, 9 other students from various schools of the district made it to the first 25 list of the board in high school results. They are Mayank Pathak, Gaurav Singh Mahra, Kanchan Kanyan, Tribhuvan Singh Chauhan, Laxman Takuli, Parshpriya Joshi, Tarun Pant, Neelam Khanka and Harish Singh Basera. "These are the students who have acquired more than 89 per cent in the high school examination of the board," said the education officer.

Besides Himanshu Joshi of Dayanand Vidya Mandir, 8 other students from various schools have secured their position in top 20 list of the board. Most of these students - Vijay Bhatt, Gaurav Karayat, Bhupen Basad, Nikita Rawat, Vijay Patni, Mukesh Pandey and Yogesh Samant - are from private schools and have secured more than 84.80 percent marks in intermediate examination conducted by the board, he said . — OC

Row in MC over computerised barriers on Mall Road
Our Correspondent

Mussoorie, May 29
Another controversy arose in the Municipal Council meeting held in Mussoorie when ward member Virendar Rawat created a rukus over the issue of computerised barriers installed by MC on Mall Road that were to be inaugurated today but had to be postponed due to the stand-off between the traders and the MC officials.

Virendar Rawat said that around Rs 63 lakh were spent on installing the bollards despite the protest of six ward members. He also alleged that some ward members had pursued the matter of the barriers and were acting as middle men of the firm that was involved in installing them on Mall Road due to vested interests. He said that spending Rs 63 lakh on computerised barriers was nothing but waste of public money. He also alleged that the computerised barriers installed here were cheaper than the price quoted by the concerned firm; hence a thorough technical investigation should be ordered before the inaugration. He informed that the SDM, Mussoorie, had ordered an enquiry into the matter recently.

The executive officer. Rohitash Sharma, when contacted, responding to the ward members' allegation said that the decision of installing the said barriers at Mall Road was taken by the board unanimously in which Virendar Rawat was also one of the signatories; so raising the issue after the installation was beyond his comprehension.

He further said that the barriers were installed to provide relief to the pedestrians who had to bow down under the barriers installed previously. Speaking on the price and the technical feasibility he said that the payment to the firm will be done only after completing all legalities and investigations on the quality of the barriers installed here.

Mussoorie MC meeting marred by chaotic scenes
Our Correspondent

Mussoorie, May 29
The monthly Municipal Council meeting that was held at MC premises was marred with chaotic scenes today.

Furious over inaction against the rampant encroachment being done by the street vendors and other traders, the MC president, OP Uniyal, lambasted his officials for inaction and also alleged that his own officials instead of carrying out anti-encroachment drive effectively were conniving with the encroachers and shielding them in the process which had led to Mall Road turning into a fish market in Mussoorie today.

Enraged at the callous attitude of the officials, OP Uniyal and some ward members said that the officials instead of performing their duties were just passing their time in the council and should leave the office if they were not interested in performing their duties. OP Uniyal further said that due to the rampant encroachment on Mall Road where the food was being sold out in open has turned Mall Road into a lane of Chandi Chowk, marring the beauty of the hill town much to the disgust of tourists and residents alike.

The enraged MC president and the ward members cancelled the board meeting of today without discussing any proposal. OP Uniyal further said that no meeting will be held till the time the encroachments were not removed from the Mall Road. He also warned the officials that if the encroachments were not removed within three days, then he would be forced to act sternly against the concerned officials.

Responding to the strong remarks, the team of MC officials led by the controversial Executive Officer Rohitash Sharma, who was suspended earlier and returned at the post after the judicial order passed in his favour few days back, headed for the Mall Road in order to remove the encroachments where they confiscated the goods lying in the open on the encroached land of Municipal Council here.

The anti-encroachment exercise created a furore among the traders in the town who later gathered at Picture Palace and blocked the traffic for a few hours under the leadership of the Mussoorie Traders Association president Rajat Agarwal. The affected traders raised slogans against the MC officials and demanded that the council return confiscated goods immediately. The MC president, hearing about the protest, visited the site and tried to explain his view to the traders but was chased away subsequently by the enraged traders who were in no mood to listen to his pleas. Later the traders' delegation calling of the blockade met the MC president OP Uniyal at his office where they alleged that the MC officials were harassing the poor traders but leaving out the people with high approach.

Rajat Agarwal further said that they were not against anti-encroachment drive but were protesting the procedure adopted by the officials. He demanded that before starting any such drive the traders and street vendor association should be taken into confidence. The Congress youth leader, Megh Singh Kandari, said that the officials while carrying out the drive had destroyed the goods of the traders and such exercise will not be tolerated at any cost.

Question Hour
Paucity of funds hits pension
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 29
For the past three months, the Uttarakhand Government has failed to pay pension to handicapped persons due to paucity of funds in some of the districts. While the government has paid old-age pension and widow pension till March 31, 2012, but it has so far not disbursed pension for the handicapped persons due to lack of finances.

Replying to a question raised by the opposition BJP during Question Hour today, the Social Welfare Minister and Transport Minister Surinder Rakesh said the government had been unable to disburse the pension to handicapped persons in Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi, Bageshwar, Almora and Haridwar.

The payment of instalment for January, February and March among the beneficiaries had been pending.

To another question, the minister also revealed that the government was planning to hike the pension for the beneficiaries falling under widow, old age and handicapped categories.

In a related question to the mode of disbursement of pensions, the minister said the pension was being disbursed through mini banks, nationalised banks, post offices and money order.

Vehicles plying without permits

In a reply to a question raised by BJP MLA Madan Kaushik about action initiated by the government to stop plying of vehicles without permits on roads, Social Welfare and Transport Minister Surinder Rakesh said between 2011-2012, a total of 4,05,120 vehicles were checked by flying squads. Out of which 49,951 vehicles were challaned.

The squad also found 6,326 vehicles plying on the roads without permits and another 2,708 vehicles were found violating permit issuance norms. A total of 10,727 vehicles were found operating without payment of dues.

Trauma centres

Replying to a question raised by Congress MLA Mayukh Singh regarding the number of trauma centres functioning in the state, Minister of Health and Sugarcane Surinder Singh Negi said due to shortage of doctors, the government was unable to operate trauma centres in the state. He said the government had managed to procure land for constructing trauma centre at Pithoragarh and due to the strategic importance of the trauma centre at Rishikesh Hospital, the government had partly operationalised parts of the centre by appointing a surgeon. The government was also trying to get accreditation from the Central Government for the blood bank.

Payment of dues to cane farmers

Minister Surinder Singh Negi also informed the House that the government was yet to pay Rs 246.71 crore as dues to the farmers accrued during 2011-2012. He said in addition, the Kashipur sugar mill (Udham Singh Naagr) has failed to pay dues to the tune of Rs 409.73 crore for the year 2007-08 to the farmers. 

Teachers' shortage forcing students to leave schools
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, May 29
The number of students in primary schools in Champawat district is gradually coming down due to shortage of teachers, even the distribution of mid-day meal and free stationery and school dress has failed to attract the students to these schools. These schools are situated in the remote areas of the district, Education Department sources said.

"Out of a total of 513 primary schools in the district, we have 17 schools without teachers, 253 schools are running with one teacher whereas 26 schools have less than 10 students in each school," said PR Kohli, District Education Officer, Champawat.

The DEO says that this number in government schools has reduced gradually as the district has been covered by private schools which have better education infrastructure.

"Whereas we have been fighting to get a sufficient number of teachers for the past many years, these private schools have surplus teachers though they are not as qualified as government teachers are", said the education officer.

According DEO, out of a total number of 21,054 students registered in all four blocks of the district last year, 1,182 less students were registered this year. "The most affected schools are Udali, Khunari, Lashan, Larabora, Gangsir and Selagar in Champawat block, Boyal Diuri, Kathol primary schools in the Lohaghat block, Kaligaun, Kotlaseem in the Barakot block and Tapnipal, Dhunakot, Khetikhan, Simal khet, Balatari in the Pati block are the worst hit by the shortage of teachers and the decreasing number of the students in these primary schools," said the DEO.

Yoga a hit in summer camps in Haridwar
Tribune News Service

A participant performs yoga in a summer camp in Haridwar on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Haridwar, May 29
With schools getting closed in view of the summer vacation, a number of summer camps is being held in the city.

Apart from co-curricular activities, learning-sporting skills and personality development workshops, imparting yoga is being seen as a growing trend in summer camps.

Children and teenagers are keenly learning yoga skills with many camps also giving students moral teaching.

At Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter-College, BHEL, yoga is a big hit with dozens of students enrolling on a daily basis in the morning session to learn this ancient art from yog acharyas. One such expert imparting yoga training, Dr Laxmi Narayan Joshi of Uttarakhand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya termed the craze among the younger generation about yoga a good sign for a healthy nation.

Dr Joshi added that yoga was an ancient heritage of Indian culture and in this fast lifestyle, yoga was essential to remain healthy.

School principal Uday Raj Chauhan said the very motive of starting the summer camp was to make children indulge in good recreational activities which came handy in their future life as well as assist in their studies.

"Yoga is the best thing we can teach in summer camp apart from other activities. It keeps mind and body fresh and paves way for concentration, good memory and flexibility which are necessary for students," said Raj Kumar a teacher at the camp.

While at Delhi Public School, Ranipur, 10-day summer camp concluded with a variety of skills being imparted to the students.

These ranged from dance, sports, elocution, GK, swimming and cracking Sudoku.

KC Pandey, DPS, Principal, expressed happiness in having a large number of students participating in this camp.

Special security cell needed for border states
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, May 29
States situated on the Indo-China and Indo-Nepal border need to have a special security cell linked with the Central Government's defence establishment. It will keep these states alert at the time of proxy war situation from across the borders, as the geo-political situation inside Tibet and Nepal is easy for unwanted elements to poach inside the Indian territory.

These observations were made by Lt Gen MC Bhandari (retd) at Nainital delivering his lecture as a chief guest of a seminar on the security of the region held at academic staff college on Monday.

The lecture series organised by academic staff college aimed at knowing the latest trends in geography and culture of Uttarakhand.

Delivering his keynote address in the seminar, Dr Shekhar Pathak, renowned historian of the region, gave information on the changing trends of culture and geography of Uttarakhand and elaborated how the culture of the regions had changed over the years due to changing geography due to slides and other natural calamities.

"The natural calamities in the state have brought in big changes in the traditional habitats of people but the respective governments have always neglected these changes, which have resulted into migration of people from these areas affecting the security of the region," said Dr Pathak.

Speaking in the seminar, Bhandari pointed out that China and Nepal were the main security concerns for the state as it was situated on the border of these countries. Bhandari said as the geo-political situation of these regions was changing rapidly, the border states needed to keep alert as the geo-political condition of these neighboring nations was changing rapidly. 

Residents against opening of liquor shop
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 29
Residents of Kanwali Road are adamant on not letting a liquor shop operate in their area. The liquor shop had been notified to be opened in the area between Saharanpur Chowk and Balliwala Chowk but the residents are opposing the move tooth and nail. Umesh Jaiswal was given another location in the same area by Excise Department after he was opposed vehemently by the residents, but even there, the residents gathered and protested .

Meharbaan Singh Bisht, City Magistrate, who was present on the occasion, said he would look into the matter. “Since the area notified cannot be changed, so the liquor shop will be given space somewhere on the same road, which is not a residential but a commercial area.” He said the administration could not lose revenue and said a liquor shop in the area existed for long but the residents did not oppose it then.

MLA Rajkumar who was also present said he would not let a liquor shop be set up in the area if people of the area did not want so. He said he also talked to District Magistrate about it.

Suicide bid by 2 students

Dehradun, May 29
After the results of class XII were out , two students tried to take their lives for failing in the exams. Fortunately, they were saved in the nick of time. Rakhi, daughter of Gore Lal and resident of Azad Nagar Basti, was spotted by her family members while attempting to drink poison.

The police did not file the case on the insistence of the parents but suggested t to at least take her to the hospital. The second case is of Neeraj Singh, son of Prithvi Singh, Miyawala at Doiwala. He was seen by his elder brother while trying to hang himself with a fan..—TNS