Mobile medical vans, health centres running without official sanction
Dehradun, July 20
Lacking official sanction since more than a month, it has been business as usual for Non-Government Organisations running arogya raths (mobile medical vans) and urban rural health centres in select cities under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), except that their contracts with the Health Department expired in the month of May and have not been renewed so far.

Teachers against quota in promotions
Dehradun, July 20
Favouring the recent High Court ruling calling for ending reservation in promotions, teachers said today that the ruling would pave the way for promotion for employees on the basis of their seniority.

Dehradun, July 20
Yoga guru Ramdev’s aide Balkrishan was today arrested from Haridwar in connection with a fake passport case against him. A non-bailable warrants against him was earlier issued in the day by a special court of the CBI in Dehradun when he failed to turn up for the hearing. He reached Dehradun in the evening and was taken to the CBI office and then Coronation Hospital for a mandatory medical check-up. At the time of filing this report, he was not produced before the special court of the CBI.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Balkrishan for allegedly using fake documents to procure a passport on July 10. In its investigation, the CBI has alleged that Balkrishan submitted fake educational certificates to get a passport and also violated provisions of the Passport Act. A case of cheating and criminal conspiracy has been registered by the CBI against Balkrishan for fake degrees and violating Section 12 of the Indian Passport Act.

Balkrishan reached Dehradun with a caravan of 8-10 four-wheelers packed with his supporters following him from Haridwar. He was taken to the CBI office at Seemadwar and later Coronation Hospital for a medical check-up.

His supporters raised slogans on the CBI court premises throughout the day. The police had to push them out of the court on to the road. The information of Balkrishan deposing before the CBI court eluded the media the whole day. Information regarding his arrest and bringing him from Haridwar kept the print and electronic media glued to the court premises. It was in the evening when the clock struck 5, time for courts to close down, that the police spread the word then Balkrishan would be produced tomorrow. The supporters and some of the media vanished from the scene. But then once again thenews surfaced that a heavy force had been deployed and gates of the court had been closed, which signalled arrival of Balkrishan in court any time. Mediapersons, too, returned.

Meanwhile, sources circulated another story that Balkrishan was reaching the CBI office at Seemadwar, not the CBI court. Some of the reporters fled to Seemadwar. Few publications deputed correspondents at the CBI office and court premises. The police force, too, dispersed from court after which the media persons stationed there, too, returned disappointed. Ultimately, it was found that Balkrishan reached the CBI office with a cavalcade of his supporters. Another chase followed after him thereafter.

Dehradun, July 20
Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain held a meeting to discuss the issue relating to the division of assets between Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh at the Secretariat here today.

He said after the meeting of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna with UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the distribution process had expedited. He said Uttarakhand had received Rs 183 crore from UP as pension liability and it was ready to pay the remaining amount.

Jain said the UP Industrial Development Corporation had transferred all 17 industrial establishments located in UP to SIDCUL, Uttarakhand.

He said 56 per cent of the land of five water reservoirs fell in Uttarakhand and UP had consented to handover Sharda Sagar to Uttarakhand for which a coordination committee of the Chief Secretary levels had been constituted by both the states.

A meeting of the Chief Secretaries of both the states would take place soon, he said.

Jain said Uttarakhand had to pay 5 per cent liabilities as per the population to Uttar Pradesh according to the Reorganisation Act and UP could not seek more than that. He directed the officials concerned to redress petty issues with coordination among the departments and resolve pending matters by meeting UP officers.

He said consensus between both the states had been reached to transfer 9.50 acres in Haridwar to Uttarakhand by UP. directed the officials to resolve this issue within 10 days.

The Chief Secretary said the UP Forest Corporation was expected to pay Rs 1,400 crore to Uttarakhand while UP was also ready to pay assets worth Rs 173 crore out of a total of Rs 203 crore.

He laid emphasis on resolving matters by mutual understanding. He said the court would be approached only for the issues which would not be resolved mutually.

The meeting was attended by Secretary, Rural Development, Arun Kumar Dhaundiyal, Secretary, Energy, SS Sandhu, Secretary, Corporation, PS Gusain, Secretary, Animal Husbandry, RC Pathak and other senior officials.

Dehradun, July 20
Lacking official sanction since more than a month, it has been business as usual for Non-Government Organisations running arogya raths (mobile medical vans) and urban rural health centres in select cities under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), except that their contracts with the Health Department expired in the month of May and have not been renewed so far.

Sources in the Health Department claim that with the Principal Secretary, Health, Dr Ranvir Singh, going into details of the past contracts afresh, the situation has turned troublesome for the state officials of the National Rural Health Mission, who have on the sly given a go-ahead to the NGOs in the hope that the contracts would again be extended, though officially the matter is still pending.

So much so, that some of the NGOs have even been asked to carry out programmes during the population stabilisation fortnight ending on July 24, without renewal of contracts in their respective urban centres. “As of now, the NGOs' and urban centres' contracts have ended but they are still carrying on the task. Issues pertaining to health cannot be left to chance. In case the Health Department fails to renew them, who would pay the NGOs for the work being carried by them,” asked a senior official in the Health Department.

According to the terms and conditions of the agreement, the contracts with the NGOs have to be renewed every year and the NRHM unit of the Health Department is under no obligation to continue with the same set of NGOs.

After taking over as Principal Secretary, Health, Dr Ranvir Singh had decided to review the terms and conditions of the super-specialists appointed on contract at Doon and Coronation Hospitals, and the contracts of the existing doctors were not renewed. The issue would now be taken afresh.

There are a total of 21 urban health centres in the cities of Haridwar, Dehradun, Roorkee and Haldwani being run through NGOs. In Dehradun, out of the nine urban centres, three are being run by Society of People for Development (SPD) and six by Samarparn. In Haridwar, of the six centres, three are under DJUS and the remaining three under SPD.

Similarly, a total of 13 mobile vans are being run through NGOs, including SPD, Rajbhra Medicare Pvt Ltd and GVK EMRI in Pithoragarh. These mobile vans provide diagnostic services and maternal and child care facilities.

Dehradun, July 20
Favouring the recent High Court ruling calling for ending reservation in promotions, teachers said today that the ruling would pave the way for promotion for employees on the basis of their seniority.

"We have never opposed reservation in appointments but to continue with reservation even in promotions is against the concept of providing equal opportunities," said Sunil Dutt Kothari , coordinator, Uttarakhand Adhikari Karmchari Shikshak Sangharsh Morcha.

At a press conference today, he said the morcha would fight for the rights of the employees who had been affected by the reservation policy in promotion.

He said owing to this, much junior employees had been promoted while those in the general category had been left behind.

Dehradun, July 20
A medley of programmes marked the annual day celebrations of Army Public School, Clement Town, Dehradun, at Golden Key Auditorium here today.

Maj-Gen Amerjeet Singh, SM, Patron, APS, who was the chief guest, inaugurated the camp by lightning a lamp. Brig SK Thapa, SM, Chairman, APS, was the guest of honour.

Tiny tots held the audience spellbound with their performance in a fashion show, four seasons and western dance.

The programme began with Saraswati Stuti followed by an English play, Gujarati, Nepali and Punjabi fusion dance, school orchestra, mime and Nepali dance by senior students.

The chief guest gave away the prizes to the meritorious students, Garima Chaudhary, Sharika Sharma, Tarun Dimri, Pooja Ghosh, Vinay Kumar Yadav and Antima Gulia.

Principal Yashpal Sharma presented the school annual report and also thanked all dignitaries present on the occasion.

Dehradun, July 20
Experts said today the ultrasound tracking devices for sonography centres couldn't prove effective tools for preventing sex selection and protecting the girl child, instead the government should ensure that the provisions of the PCPNDT Act were strictly implemented in the state.

Even the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand had suggested installing these devices at the sonography centres for keeping a watch on illegal abortions, these could only be effective if the government ensured the execution of the provisions of Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT). The device would give rise to another kind of flourishing racket, said Sabu George of Action Aid.

He was speaking today at a workshop on, "Declining Girlchild Ratio in Uttarakhand", for reporters organised by the ActionAid, an international NGO.

The child sex ratio of Uttarakhand is alarming and statistics paint a grim picture. The child sex ratio (0-6 years) of Uttarakhand has come down to a dismal 886 in 2011 from 908 girls per 1000 boys since the last census in 2001.

"In Pithoragarh district, the child sex ratio is 812 according to the 2011 census report. The decline was reported in one tehsil in 2001 and over the years the situation has turned serious here," said Sabu.

The cavalier attitude of the Health Department was also evident as Joint Director, Health, Gurpal Singh was unable to give convincing answers about the steps taken by the Uttarakhand Government to control the declining child sex ratio.

This was further pointed out by Ajai Setia, chairman of the Uttarakhand Child Rights Commission. He said the PCPNDT Act was not being forcefully enforced by the government in Uttarakhand.

"According to the Act, the district committees should have been formed to monitor the proper implementation of the Act but these are non-existent," said Setia.

Dehradun, July 20
Delhi Public School celebrated Planet Pals Week with great zeal and enthusiasm. The school was abuzz with plethora of activities during celebration from July 17 to July 20.

The programme began with a special assembly in which rhymes and skits were presented to create awareness and sensitise the students to protect the environment.

Students took pledge to "Say no to polybags". Green soldiers along with the teachers participated enthusiastically in plantation activity and promised to take care of the plants. To bring them close to nature, children were taken for nature walk to Ramakrishna Mission Ashram.

They were overhelmed with the serenity and picturesque location. Children were jubilant to carry home the items made by them which they learnt through the concept of 3 Rs -- Reduce, Reuse & Recycle.

Principal Sanjay K Singh appreciated the efforts made by the teachers. Sapna Chawla, Monica Nigam, Archana Devlal and Preeti Nayyer for the significant contribution in making this programme a great success.

Dehradun, July 20
Uttarakhand Health Minister Surinder Singh Negi and Planning and Sports Minister Dinesh Agarwal today inaugurated the Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL) and DOTS plus site at the state tuberculosis office.

The laboratory has made it possible for conducting MDR TB tests in Dehradun. Earlier, these tests were conducted in Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, state tuberculosis officer Dr Ajit Gairola said the laboratory would prove useful in conducting tests for MDR tuberculosis (drug-resistant tuberculosis).

“After starting the DOTS Plus programme whose focus is on MDR in five districts of the state, we have now spread in all districts and IRL will prove handy and moved on to molecular testing for tuberculosis. Along with IRL, Dehradun, a line probe assay facility and the Gene expert in Tehri have also been set up. These are part of molecular testing and are aimed at shortening the reporting period for MDR tuberculosis, so that the treatment is started at a quicker pace,” said Dr Gairola. 

Dehradun, July 20
Akranta, Dehradun XI and Garhwal Sporting won their respective matches in the 3rd ONGC-BS Negi Memorial Football Tournament being played at Ambedkar Stadium, Dehradun, today

In the first match, Akranta won by two goals against Gorkha Boys. Bhuppi scored the first goal in the 50th minute, followed by Puri who scored the second goal in the 62nd minute of the match.

Further, Garhwal Sporting won against Rising Star 3-1. Abhishek Kala, Shivam and Naveen scored the goals for the Garhwal Sporting team in the 55th, 60th and 67th minutes, respectively. For Rising Star, Prabhas Gurung scored the lone goal in the 45th minute of the match.

In the third match, Dehradun XI beat the Doon United team 1-0. Shriyansh Bhatt scored the goal for Dehradun XI in the 32nd minute of the match.

Dehradun, July 20
In the Dehradun District Table Tennis Championship-2012-13 being played at Summer Valley School, Tushar Pandey and Tina Rawat emerged champions in the categories of cadet boys and cadet girls.

Tushar Pandey of Summer Valley beat Amogh Rautela of the same school in the cadet boys' final with a score of 3-1 (11-8, 11-7,10-12, 11-8).

Earlier, in the semifinals, Tushar Pandey beat Sushant Joshi (Summer Valley) 3-1 (11-4,11-7,11-13, 11-7) whereas Amogh Rautela (Summer Valley) beat Lakhvinder (Guru Nanak boys Inter-College) 3-0.

In cadet girls, Tina Rawat (Summer Valley) beat Vanshika Saxena (Summer Calley) 3-1 (11-7,11-3, 7-11, 11-7).