Dehradun, August 10
A profitable business of making quick and big money is flourishing in the city by collection of garbage from a large number of houses and shops. Over 200 tonnes of litter is collected everyday.

All this is going on right under the nose of officials of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), who have chosen to remain quiet about it.

As per the figure provided by the DMC, around 110 tonnes of garbage is collected from 30 wards of the city, covering around 38,000 houses by Delhi-based SPML agency under Jawaharlal Nehru Rural Urban Management (JNNURM) scheme every day.

Rest of the wards are somehow managed the DMC. Herein lies the catch. DMC officials always complain about paucity of staff and openly acknowledge their helplessness in managing the sanitation conditions and garbage disposal in the rest of the 30 wards of the city.

Several groups have taken over the task themselves in collecting door-to-door garbage from many of these localities in these remaining 30 wards on their own, without taking the consent of the DMC, which is illegal. They charge arbitrary rates from the residents, who have no option but to take their services in the absence of any alternative.

The litter thus collected from all over the city is neither segregated nor sold for composting (degradable part) or recycling (non-bio-degradable part) by any authority as such. Here those who are involved in the job of collection and dumping at the trenching ground play the game of selling the saleable part to the big-time scrap dealers and dividing the booty among themselves. The dividends earned from this practice runs into a huge sum, but nothing is being done about it. The role of connivance of DMC employees is in the knowledge of officials as well. Expressing his ignorance about the practice, Chief

Sanitary Officer, DMC, Gurpal Singh, said the DMC, which had not been concerned about the garbage after it was lifted from the localities, could think seriously about it's proper segregation and later sale to scrap dealers, which would bring good revenue to the department.

Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, DMC, Ashok Kumar, assured that if any malpractice was going on in the garbage business, then he would certainly investigate into the matter and punish the guilty. He said he had already taken some steps in this direction where he had deputed a senior officer at the trenching ground to monitor the number of vehicles and the amount of litter dumped into the trenching ground.

He, however, hoped that when the Scientific Land Fill (SLF), which was coming up at Shishambara under JNNURM scheme, would be ready, these problems would fade away. At the SLF, the garbage of the city would be scientifically treated where the bio-degradable would be converted into compost manure and non-bio-degradable would be recycled.

Till then, the illegal trade continues to flourish unchecked in the city.

Pithoragarh, August 10
The Kumaon region loses electricity units of Rs 200 crore per year during its transmission to powerhouses from generation centres and from powerhouses to consumers.

According to sources, every year Kumaon alone loses 817.493 MU which costs the exchequer nearly Rs 200 crore.

“Most of these losses are due to loss during transmission which is called technical distribution losses,” said SS Kanyal, chief engineer, UPCL in the Kumaon region.

According to him, out of nearly 30 MU that the state gets, the Kumaon region has its share of 13 MU per day, out of this, a transmission loss of 2.3 MU per day is being borne by all 13 electricity distribution divisions in the region.

“While 12 per cent of this is stolen, rest 88 per cent is lost due to technical snags during the distribution,” said the Kumaon chief engineer.

Dehradun, August 10
Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt has called upon the scientists to take the new food security challenges head-on in the post-green revolution scenario.

Inaugurating a seminar on ‘Livelihood opportunities in fringe forests: Research and management prospective’ at Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, Dutt said the nation faced a set of food security challenges today, which needed to be tackled by the scientists.

He said the concern of the states should be to maximise the agricultural benefits from degraded lands, rocky areas, marshy lands and the areas suffering from harsh climatic conditions. He said gulf countries imported non-wood forest produce from the forests of India and after converting those into valuable products and sold it back to India and other countries.

He cited the examples of Mullathee, Rakt Chandan and desired that such resources be exploited indigenously so that maximum benefit goes to the deprived section of society.

Dutt also urged the Indian Forest Service officers to protect, conserve and utilise the vast resources of the country to alleviate poverty and bring prosperity to poor, tribal and forest dwellers. Tripura Chief Secretary SK Panda said a paradigm shift was necessary in the policies related to tribal to bridge the gap between poor and rich.

While citing few examples of strategies adopted in Tripura, he said the large scale rubber plantation, making of agarbattee (incense sticks) from bamboos and improvement in cultivation and marketing of medicinal plants had enhanced the livelihood of tribal and proved responsible for decline in insurgency in the area.

Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dr VK Bahuguna, shared his observation about the diverse resources available in the forest fringe areas and expressed his concern over its disappearance.

He was of a strong opinion that the management plan for the fringe forests had to be rediscovered and executed in such a way that the resources were conserved and utilised in sustainable manner for the benefit of the forest-fringe people by adopting innovative strategies in the field of planning, administration, scientific and technical advances and extension.

Dehradun, August 10
Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt visited the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), a voluntary group involved in rural development work at Shuklapur village, here today.

Dr Anil Joshi, founder of the HESCO and a Padma Shri recipient showed the technologies introduced by his voluntary group.

Dutt was told that rural women, particularly in the hills, have benefited by adopting these techniques.

Dr Rakesh Kumar, senior scientist of the HESCO, told the Governor about the latest intervention by his group in farm-based technologies. He said by small interventions based on science, the economic condition of many rural poor could improve.

In his address, the Governor said he was impressed by the Kisan Bank started by the HESCO and called for its spread and reach. He said the products being produced by village women needed to be more competitive for open market competition.

He also showed keen interest in water mill technology developed by the group.

Dehradun, August 10
Sushmita Dutt, wife of Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt, visited Prerna Souvenir Shop at Forest Research Institute here today.

The shop is run by a self-help group to promote welfare activities for poor residents of the FRI. Usha Bahuguna, wife of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education’s Director VK Bahuguna, welcomed Dutt, who took keen interest in the activities of the self-help group. She appreciated the efforts of the group to promote rural artisans and poor residents of the FRI campus and urged the members to upscale the activities so that they could do more to help the poor.

Mussoorie, August 10
Buoyed with the positive response of the students towards science subjects, courtesy the first-ever trip to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) undertaken recently, St.George's College is planning to introduce astronomy as additional subject in the school.

The school also envisages to introduce several space-related programmes and workshops in the coming year so that the students are able to enhance their understanding about the universe and other related fields.

The Principal, St. George's College, Brother Christopher, speaking exclusively to The Tribune informed that the it was the first experience for 25 students and three teachers accompanying them to the international space camp at Kennedy Space Centre (Orlando). Christopher, recalling the whole trip, said that the students reached Kennedy Space Centre in the US where they were welcomed by KSC educators, who provided a complete tour to the students of astronauts’ memorial wall. It was followed by a bus tour to the launch pads and the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Unit), one of the tallest & biggest buildings at the centre. The educators there also gave a guided tour of the rocket garden, the Hubble exhibit. The students also saw movies in IMAX Theatre on space exploration inside the centre.

The students got the opportunity of having lunch and interacting with the astronaut Sam Durrance. Following that, they took turns whirling around on the Multi Axis Trainer, climbed a gravity wall with a harness and learnt about trajectories by riding the trajectory chair. The students took on the engineering challenge and built a bridge with 'Lego material' that had to hold particular weights, and won prizes for successfully achieving the feat. The students were also delighted to receive certificates of graduation from the KSC authorities. “The whole trip to NASA has been a learning one for the students and the staff. The students got the first-hand experience to enter a spaceship that goes to the moon and also watched spacecraft up close. The whole experience has created a newfound interest towards science and students are asking more questions in the class. The awareness to know about the universe has increased among the students. Brother Naveen, the science teacher, has taken it as a personal project to introduce the students to the space-related subjects in the school. The school is now planning to introduce astronomy as an additional subject,” added Brother Christopher.

Haridwar, August 10
Governor Aziz Qureshi will preside over at a plantation drive of Kalp Vriksha in Haridwar on August 12.

The drive is being carried out jointly by the Forest Department and Himalaya Vahini. As many as 1,151 saplings will be planted at Nakshatra Vatika. Divisional forest officer, Himalaya Vahini, D Sanatan said the Governor would arrive at Nakshatra Vatika at 4 pm on August 12. Jagadguru Shankaracharya Raj Rajeshwaram will also attend the event. The DFO said their target was to plant 5,000 saplings to make Haridwar a city of Kalp Vriksha. Rana Ranbeer Singh of Himalaya Vahini said Kalp Vriksha purifies the air.

Uday Ram Semwal, Lalit Mamgain and Aadesh Marwadi of the organisation said all saplings had been donated by people with 100-odd saplings coming from foreign countries.