CM vows to make Raj Jat Yatra memorable event
Inaugurates state's Space Application Centre
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today inaugurated the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre prepared by the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’s digital map along with a dedicated website on the yatra.

In his brief address, Vijay Bahuguna assured to make Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra in 2013 a big event.

Bahuguna said there will be no dearth of funds for the conduct of the yatra and asserted that he would also be shortly meeting the Prime Minister, apprising him about the importance of Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra and seek financial support from him.

He disclosed that a cell will be set up in his office for ensuring wide publicity to the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra both at national and international forums.

He said taking into account the difficult terrain involved with the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra, adequate preparations were very much needed for the yatra with special emphasis on health, food and safety factors.

He said Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra will help Uttarakhand showcase its rich culture.

Bahuguna said that the success of the yatra would help Uttarakhand carve its niche in the international map of tourism.

He said that to make the event a grand success, Sri Nanda Raj Jat Yatra Development Committee had been constituted and persons from Nainital, Almora and Bageshwar districts, who are related to the yatra, had been nominated as its members.

Appreciating USAC, Bahuguna said the satellite data today was of great benefit in preparing database maps.

He said the details provided in the Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra’s website will be of much help to the tourists.

Earlier, USAC’s Director MM Kimothi informed the gathering about the efforts undertaken by the USAC towards preparation of the map and the website.

Uttarakhand Rajya Sabha BJP MP Tarun Vijay, Uttarakhand Science and Technology Minister Surendra Singh Negi, Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Amrita Rawat, Badrinath Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari and president of Nanda Devi Raj Jat Committee Rakesh Kunwar were present on the occasion. 

Promoting tribal folk tales via animation her mission
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
Almora-born animator Tara Douglas has taken up a mission to promote tribal folk tales and art through the medium of animation. Douglas, secretary of Adivasi Arts Trust, was recently in Dehradun to attend Ghummakkad Narain — The Travelling Literature Festival. She was here for the screening of her animation films based on folk tales from Central India.

In her interaction with The Tribune, Douglas spoke of her efforts towards promotion of tribal culture in India.

“Though animation films, I have tried to sensitise the children about the importance of these folk art, particularly in the Central Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra,” she said. These tribes had a rich folk culture and art that needed to be preserved. She said her next aim was to make animation films on the tribal art of the seven sister states, she added.

Referring to the animation industry in India, Douglas said the Indian animation industry had been limited to commercial ventures. “Animation industries in Pune and Mumbai are commercial and believe in quantity rather than quality,” she argued and asserted that her animation work was committed to tribal cause. She had done a lot of research work on it, she stated.

Douglas said she had been working with researchers, tribal artists, storytellers and even student animators for coming up with tribal animation films. She said her film on five folk tales from the Central India had received a commendable response in both India and abroad.

She said she had been participating in children festivals all across the country and abroad. She held that her trust was a UK-based charity organisation committed to preserve the tribal art. She said the trust had been working to promote awareness of Indian tribal culture. She said the trust involved the tribes in digital media projects to make their art widely accessible.

Elaborating on tribal stories, she said all tribal stories had simple wisdom that had relevance even today. She said the trust was engaged in documenting the oral storytelling tradition and preserving the stories by adapting them for digital media.

Douglas said festival like Ghummakkad Narain hold a lot of importance in a country where storytelling had became a tale of passé.

Woman’s house burgled at Library Bazaar
Our Correspondent

The ransaked house where burglars struck in Mussoorie

Mussoorie, August 30
Personal items worth more than Rs 1 lakh were stolen from the house of a woman residing in a mosque at Library Bazaar here today. According to the police, Hussain Bano, wife of late Mustalim, after returning from Nagina after three months, opened the door on Wednesday night and found that her house was ransacked and her personal belongings worth Rs 1 lakh had been stolen in the process.

She immediately reported the matter to the Mussoorie police. The police has registered a case and has begun investigations. The thieves laid their hands on the masonry equipment left by her husband. The police is also not ruling out the possibility of theft by some close acquaintances.

Plea to name state-of-the-art stadium after Dhyan Chand
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, August 30
Remembering the contribution and achievements of legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand, local people have demanded naming the upcoming state-of-the art stadium at Devpura being built by the Haridwar Development Authority after his name.

On the occasion of National Sports Day celebrated in honour of Dhyan Chand, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive) has mooted naming of the HAD stadium in the name of the hockey player.

Terming it as a tribute from the city of Haridwar where once Dhyan Chand played at Gurukul Kangri University, Swami Shraddhanand Stadium in Shraddhanand All India National Tournament, the UKD (P) activists said that this will be a befitting honour to the wizard of hockey.

Paying tributes to Dhyan Chand at Bhagat Singh Chowk, UKD (P) sports cell city chief Lalit Mamgain said that Dhyan Chand made hockey popular worldwide, bringing in three gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics, consecutively.

“Never did India lose when Dhyan Chand represented India, testimony of which is his 400 internationals and over 1000 plus league domestic goals in hockey circuit.

He is to hockey what Pele and Maradona are to football, Sir Bradman and Tendulkar are to cricket, Mohammed Ali to boxing, Armstrong to cycling and Schumacher to F-1 racing,” said Mamgain, while paying floral tributes to the portrait of Dhyan Chand.

Shedding light on the achievements of Dhyan Chand, Uday Ram Semwal, central secretary of the UKD, pointed out that in 1936 Berlin hockey Olympic final, Dhyan Chand scored three goals, leading India to triumph in the presence of jampacked Nazi supporters.

He added that later Adolf Hitler got so impressed with skills of Dhyan Chand that he offered a post of Colonel to him in the German army with other remunerations, which simple and patriotic Dhyan Chand politely rejected.

“In 1980 the Indian government issued a postal ticket in his honour while he was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1956. Even Sir Don Bradman praised him for scoring 201 goals in a single series against Australia and New Zealand in 30s, " said Semwal.

Sports activist Inder Mohan Barthwal said that as the National Stadium in New Delhi is named after him, there was the need to name HDA stadium also after Dhyan Chand as he was quite impressed to see Gurukul hockey players playing barefoot at Gurukul Kangri University in 1960.

Among others who paid floral tributes were Ishwari Rao, Deepak, Vijay and Shiv Dutt.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of Sports Day, several sports events were held in the city by the Sports Department and schools that included hockey, cross-country race and kabaddi.

Panwar for strengthening sheep-rearing
Tribune News Service

Uttarakhand Animal Husbandry Minister Pritam Singh Panwar chairing a meeting of the Sheep and Wool Development Board in Dehradun.

Dehradun, August 30
Uttarakhand Animal Husbandry Minister Pritam Singh Panwar has stressed the need to strengthen sheep-rearing activities in the state. Presiding over the Uttarakhand Sheep and Wool Development Board’s governing body meeting in Dehradun yesterday, Pritam Singh Panwar favoured adequate training to shepherds so as to get optimum wool production. He also stressed on rearing of high-yielding variety of sheep. He said the shepherds should also be ensured proper price for the wool.

Panwar also announced opening of 3 integrated livestock development centres in Uttarkashi district. He even suggested training those family members of shepherds who have passed high school from the science stream so that timely treatment could be rendered to diseased sheep.

The meeting also approved schemes for improving the living of sheep rearers in the districts of Chamoli, Pauri, Pithoragarh, Bageshwari, Uttarkashi, Tehri and Rudraprayag in the state.

Additional Secretary, Uttarakhand Animal Husbandry Department, Damyanti Dohray, Chief Executive Officer, Uttarakhand Handicrafts Board, Sudhir Nautiyal, Central Sheep and Wood Development Board’s officiating chairman Anurag Purohit and Director, Animal Husbandry, Kamal Mehrotra, were prominent participants in the meeting.

Student council of DPS installed
Tribune News service

Dehradun, August 30
Delhi Public School, Dehradun installed its student council at the investiture ceremony conducted on the Kalagaon Campus here today. The programme was initiated with a motivational song and decoration ceremony.

Neil Chatterjee - Head Boy, Ritika Singh - Head Girl, Sports Captain - Ankit Singh, Mahendera Pratap Singh as Cultural Captain were the school elects. Along with them, the House Captains of Kalam, Rehman, Tendulkar and Teresa House with their teams were ready to shoulder their responsibilities.

The selected council members took oath to work for the upliftment of the school with relentless commitment.

"The leaders who work most effectively never say 'I'. They think 'we the team', and create trust to enable them to achieve their task.

Headmaster of the school Niraj Gupta led the oath. The ceremony came to a close with singing of the DPS anthem. All students and staff members were present on the occasion.

Drive against illegal hoardings
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, August 30
A drive to remove illegal hoardings has been launched by the city administration. Administrative officials have said if such hoardings are put up again, the offenders will have to face heavy penalty and legal action.

Since the day the Municipal Corporation (MC) was set up in Haridwar, illegal hoardings started mushrooming at every intersection and inner roads of the city.

Illegal hoardings can be seen at Har-ki-Pauri, Chandi Ghat stretch, Upper road, Devpura, Rishikul, Old Ranipur, Tibdi stretch, Chandracharya Chowk, Shankar Ashram, Arya Nagar, Jwalapur and Pull Jatwada.

Taking cognisance of the problem, the MC and district administration are removing the hoardings.

City Magistrate Jeevan Singh Nagiyal said illegal hoardings were being removed to make the city cleaner. He said legal action would be taken against the offenders.

Additional Executive Officer, MC, Harshwardhan Mishra said 100 illegal hoardings had already been removed while more of such were being identified at various stretches across the city. He added that due to illegal hoardings, the MC had to bear a huge loss of revenue.

Vipin Tripathi remembered
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, August 30
Speakers from different political parties at a symposium at Dwarahat held on the occasion of the 8th death anniversary of Vipin Tripathi criticised the policies of successive governments of Uttarakhand. They said increasing migration from hill areas was an indicator that something was wrong with the policies of the state. Tripathi was a former UKD legislator from Dwarahat and known statehood agitation activist.

“The programme was organised by the Vipin Tripathi Vichar Manch and Creative Uttarakhand, a Delhi-based NGO,” said Charu Chandra Tiwari, organiser of the programme at Dwarahat in Almora district.

Tiwari said the programme began with a cultural procession at Dwarahat by the activists of Creative Uttarakhand and other organisations and concluded with a symposium on ‘Vikas Ki Awdharana Aur Himalaya Niti’. “The symposium was addressed by speakers from various political parties and social groups which are working towards stabilisation of Uttarakhand society. They include Kashi Singh Aeri, Narayan Singh Jantwal from the UKD; Raja Bahuguna and Purushotam Sharma from the CPI (ML) and Jagdish Upadhaya, Hem Rawat and Jagdish Budhani from Creative Uttarakhand,” said Tiwari.

Tripathi, who began his political carrier from the Samajwadi Yuva Jan Sabha in 1971, spent two years in jail during Emergency in 1975 and later joined the movement for the creation of a separate state of Uttarakhand in 1979. “Tripathi later became the pramukh of the Dwarahat block in 1989 and MLA from Dwarahat in 2002,” he said.

“He was also an ace editor and had edited a weekly called, Dronanchal Prahari, from 1971 to 1975. The weekly was based on socialist thoughts,” said Tiwari.

SP, UKD (P) back anti-quota activists
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
The Uttarakhand Samajwadi Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) today extended support to the agitation launched by members of the Uttarakhand Adhikari Karamchari Shikshak Sangharsh Morcha. They were demanding implementation of the High Court decision on the quota in reservation.

Uttarakhand Samajwadi Party president Vinod Barthwal in front of the Secretariat, addressing a gathering, said today the Uttarakhand government should have implemented the ruling as soon as it was announced as was done in Uttar Pradesh. "The state government is dithering on the issue which has led to unrest among the employees," he said.

At the Vidhan Sabha, employees from the Agriculture Department sat on a dharna to protest against the apathy of the state government. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) president Trivender Singh Panwar who also sat on the dharna joined the employees.

Later addressing the employees at the Secretariat Girdhir Bhakuni, coordinator of the morcha, said by the midnight of September 6, state employees would go on strike if the government failed to come up with a favourable decision. He urged the employees to be prepared for a long battle.

300 saplings planted
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
Activists of the Dhar Bachano Andolan planted 300 saplings at Patti Dogi in Tehri Garhwal district today. After the saplings were planted, environmentalist Kalyan Singh Rawat addressed the gathering and said society must be sensitive towards environmental issues. He added small efforts could make big changes. He welcomed the efforts of the Dhar Bachao Andolan in safeguarding the vanishing water resources in the hills.

The founder of the organisation, Ramesh Singh Chauhan, said he himself had experienced a lot of inconvenience due to an acute water shortage at his native village in Tehri. He added the people had lost the urge to conserve natural water resources and this was a matter of concern.

Chauhan said the organisation was formed in 2006 to safeguard traditional water resources. A large number of villagers, including women and youths, took part in the plantation drive.

GMVN takes up grievances of rest house managers
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
Managing Director (MD), Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), Pankaj Pandey, and General Manager, HD Pandey, today held a meeting with managers of all the tourist rest houses at Srinagar and Rishikesh, respectively. The objective of the meeting is to discuss the grievances and demands of the managers and improve the functioning of the TRHs.

Pankaj Pandey, MD, said such meetings had been held earlier as well but a new beginning was being made where managers of all the TRHs would be heard at the two-day meeting. He said : “The managers had been coming to me independently and complaining about lack of amenities or shortcomings in the infrastructure in their TRHs. In the marathon meeting, which will continue tomorrow, where the GM, Tourism, will also sit, we will get to know about their cumulative demands as well. A proposal will be prepared after that and sent to the state government.” The meeting is also seen as advance preparation for the winter season of tourism as well.

He said an amount of Rs 11 lakh had been given to the management of Hotel Drone to refurbish the infrastructure in the first stage. More funds would be given simultaneously. On the issue of handing over the sick unit of GMVN on public-private-partnership, he said since the state government had already announced to give all the TRHs on the PPP mode, the GMVN would no longer decide on any thing in this regard.

On the issue of grievances of some of the managers against the locations where they had been transferred, he said only genuine cases would be considered; otherwise the decision taken by the GMVN management would be held final in this regard.

PM’s 15-point programme for minorities
No meeting of state-level panel in 11 months
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
The state-level committee set up to review the implementation of the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme has not met for the past 11 months. This has put a question mark on the sincerity of the Uttarakhand government in implementing the existing schemes.

The committee, which has been constituted to implement the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for the minorities in the state, last met in September, 2011, under the stewardship of Subash Kumar, then Chief Secretary. But after the Congress came to power and Alok Kumar Jain took over as Chief Secretary the meeting of the committed had not been held.

The committee has to meet every three months to review the implementation of the targeted programmes. Though the revamped 15-point progarmme was announced in 2010, only three meetings were during the BJP rule.

“There is no point in announcing a scheme after another for the welfare of the minorities when there is lack of sincerity on the part of the government in implementing the existing schemes,” said Matbar Singh Kandari, former Cabinet minister.

Though the Congress government has created a separate Department for Minorities Welfare, not a single meeting for evaluating the performance of the 15-point programme has been held. Now, the Department of Minorities Welfare is the nodal department for monitoring the schemes.

“The committee is supposed to meet at least once every three months and a quarterly progress report has to be sent to the Ministry of Minority Affairs by the 15th day of the immediately succeeding month. However, we are getting reports that no committees have been formed in the districts. Hence, there has been a delay in holding a meeting of the state-level committee,” said MH Khan, Secretary, minority welfare.

The focus of the 15-point programme in the state is on ensuring that banks come forward to sanction loans to the minorities so that they could build entrepreneurial skills, form self-help groups and announce scholarships for meritorious students from the minority communities. The banks must help the minorities communities improve their living conditions through an equitable share in housing and Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS).

The programme is implemented by Central ministries and departments through the state governments for the Muslims, the Christians, the Sikhs, the Buddhists and the Zoroastrians (Parsis). 

SSP suspends 2 cops for beating up excise personnel

Dehradun, August 30
SSP Neeru Garg suspended Inspector Shiv Prasad Dabral and constable Sachin Kumar of Rani Pokhri police station for thrashing personnel of the Excise Department, mistaking them as liquor mafia a day before.

The personnel of the Excise Department had showed their identity cards but still they beat them up.

Police personnel of the Excise Department had recovered liquor. The accused had run away, leaving the liquor stock in the vehicle. Meanwhile, Rani Pokhri station personnel, too, were looking for the same accused and misunderstood the excise personel as the people from the illegal liquor mafia.

Later, the excise personel sat on dharna in the police station itself. Complaints were filed from both sides. Taking cognisance of the matter, Garg suspended both the erring policemen. — TNS

Bar thanks CM for Rs 50 lakh grant
Tribune News Service

Members of the Uttarakhand Bar Council address mediapersons in Dehradun on Thursday.

Dehradun, August 30
The Dehradun Bar Association (DBA) expressed gratitude towards Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna for announcing to give an annual fund of Rs 50 lakh to the Bar Council of Uttarakhand. Bahuguna made the announcement during a visit to the Bar Council on August 24.

President of the DBA Surinder Singh Pundir said now they would be able to give Rs 5 lakh as insurance claim and Rs 3 lakh as medical claim in case of serious injuries to fellow advocates.

General secretary of the DBA Anil Gandhi said Bahuguna, who had been an advocate and a judge for many years, accepted their demand in this regard out of empathy. He added the DBA had taken up the issue with him even when he was a Member of Parliament.

Young animator meets Qureshi
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 30
Governor Aziz Qureshi today appreciated the work being done by Aman Rehman, a 12-year-old boy who met him today and showed him one of the animation films made by him. The Governor encouraged him and wished him a bright future.

Aman has made several animation films and is now working on a film on the growing pollution in the Ganga. Qureshi wished him the best for the project.