Govt to pay arrears to cane farmers
Dehradun, October 4
In a decision aimed at giving relief to the cane farmers, the Uttarakhand government today announced release of Rs 96.43 crore that would go towards payment of cane arrears pending for the financial year 2011-2012 against sugar mills located in Gadarpur, Bajpur, Nadihe, Sitarganj, Doiwala and Kichha.

Leaders call on Governor
Dehradun, October 4
Several people made courtesy calls on Uttarakhand Governor Dr Aziz Qureshi here today.

Neha, Dimple share Miss Talented Contest title
Dehradun, October 4
The girls contesting for Miss Uttarakhand Contest 2012 today got the opportunity to showcase their talent where Neha Mishra, contestant from Dehradun, and Dimple Rana from Roorkie won the title jointly.

Participants cheer contestants of the Miss Uttarakhand Contest being held in Dehradun; and (right) a young girl performs a dance recital. Tribune photos: Vinod Pundir

Carman School, St Thomas College register win
Dehradun, October 4
The 5th Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys Super 8 a side Cricket Tournament at The Heritage School today witnessed two matches.


Players in action during the Rohitash Memorial Cricket Tournament in Dehradun on Thursday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Nivedita swims her way to victory
Haridwar, October 4
Swimmer Nivedita Sharma of the Indian Institute of Technology- Roorkee, has won a gold medal for the third consecutive time in the ongoing 44th IIT-Inter Sports Meet in Roorkee.

Diving for glory: Girl swimmers of various IITs take part in a swimming competition at the 44th IIT- Inter Sports Meet at IIT-Roorkee in Haridwar on Thursday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Welham girls excel in TT
Dehradun, October 4
In the Inter-Council Schools Senior Girls Table Tennis Tournament, Welham Girls’ School excelled both in team events and individual matches.




A participant plays a shot during the Inter-Council Schools Senior Girls’ Table Tennis Tournament in Dehradun on Thursday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

Basketball c’ship under way
Dehradun, October 4
In the District Sub-Junior (U-14) Basketball Championship, in the girls category, Unison World School beat Carman School 20-2 in a one-sided match.

Haridwar, October 4
As per figures in Haridwar, in the past two decades a whopping rise has been witnessed in the installation of ultrasound machines, while in the same time period the sex ratio has been on the decline, giving weight to the fact that female foeticide is being practised and sex determination tests are being conducted on a large scale.

Two decades back in 1991, there were only three ultrasound machines operating in Haridwar district.

At that time the boy-girl ratio was 1000-988, but now in 2012 the sex ratio has alarmingly witnessed a dip. It now stands at 1000-869.

During this span of two decades, the number of ultrasound machines has increased to 79 as per government registration figures.

Of these, 7 are government, 2 semi-government and 70 private ultrasound centres. It is a fact that in the district dozens of such ultrasound centres are operating without being registered.

This indirectly hints at sex determination tests and female foeticide being practised at these centres illegally.

Even National Supervisory Board member Vineeta Singh admitted that a sharp decline in the boy-girl ratio could be directly linked with the increase in the number of ultrasound machines.

However, Vineeta made it clear that with the coming-into-effect of the PC-PNDT (Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique) Act and existing Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the government was leaving little room for such offenders.

Chief Medical Officer Deepa Sharma apprised that already routine impromptu checking of ultrasound centres was being carried out by the Health Department. "We are looking during inspection whether the centres are registered or not, whether the concerned doctor on whose name the centre is registered is present or not, and also whether the provisions of the PC PNDT Act are being adhered to," she added.

Demanding strict implementation of the Act and monitoring of ultrasound centres, former Uttarakhand Women's State Commission chairperson Santosh Chauhan said that this was a serious matter, and in the pilgrim city of Haridwar, if people were checking the sex of the child during initial stages of pregnancy, then it was a heinous crime.

“Sex determination is a heinous crime but with the coming into effect of the PC-PNDT Act, which is a meaningful enactment to see the sex-ratio is maintained, a ray of hope has surfaced. But its proper implementation is important so that the culprits are mercilessly punished and cases disposed of expeditiously. There is a need for a change in the people's attitude, too,” opined socialite Veena Shastri, who is head of Sati Kund Kanya Maha Vidyalaya.

Director, Family Welfare, Uttarakhand, Sushma Dutta, informed TNS that in view of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act provisions, in all the 13 districts of the state, training programmes were being organised in which Health Department officials, doctors, ultrasound centre operators, medical health employees, administrative and police officials would be taking part.

Dehradun, October 4
The Doon Valley Waste Management (DVWM) project extended from ward number 31 to 45, after being carried out in the first 30 wards, has not been able to cover most of the population living in these wards. Rather, the project has not actually started off in ward number 40 onwards.

There are 60 wards. Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has just done the formality of taking the project to the next level only in the documents in order to become eligible to seek funds from the Centre on this scheme. Not only this, Sidharth Jain, director of the company which has bagged the contract of this Rs 24.6 crore project, also claimed of taking on the last segment of 15 wards in one month’s time. The haste seems unproductive here. The councillors are crying hoarse about the shoddy work being done or no work done in their wards.

Councillor Manmohan Dhanai, ward number 36, Ajabpur area, said: " The project DVWM had begun only in a few pockets of my ward. In the rest of the ward area, people are still dumping garbage on vacant plots. In some colonies, the residents are continuing to hire services of private garbage collectors.” Taseen, councillor, Brahmpuri, complained that the garbage collectors of the company were not coming regularly, wherever they had begun the work in his ward. The garbage was piling up for days together. The matter was brought to the notice of the Senior Sanitary Officer, DMC, by him but the problem still continues to persist.

Councillor Abdul Aziz of Muslim Colony, ward number 40, said that the work under the DVWM project has not started in his ward. He said the company was yet to purchase the paraphernalia such as vehicles, rheries and equipment etc to collect and dispose of the garbage.

Senior Sanitary Officer, DMC, Gurpal Singh, however, assured that soon the impediments with regard to resuming work in the wards from 30 to 45 would be overcome. He said some problems were bound to crop up in the initial stages.

Sidharth Jain passed the buck to the paucity of funds for delay in starting work in all the wards taken up in the second stage. He said: “It has been one year ever since we started work in the first 30 wards. Till date, we have got merely Rs 6.44 crore whereas our expenditure has crossed Rs 12 crore. I am told by the DMC authority that another instalment of Rs 2.5 crore is on the way. As and when we get it, it will be easy for us to purchase the vehicles, equipments and hire manpower to take up the massive work of collection and dumping of garbage from door to door. In the next one month, I will cover the remaining 15 wards as well, whereby the sanitation work will start in all the 60 wards .”

Dehradun, October 4
The work on issuance of identity cards will commence from November based on the data base prepared on enumeration done in 2010. Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain said this while chairing a meeting on national population here today.

He said the counting was completed in 2010 and the data base prepared. Now, the work of making smart cards would be taken up through biometrics. The entire work would be completed in the state in 300 days. Photographs, prints of all 10 fingers and images of their pupils would be imprinted on the Smart Card. Camps would be organised to carry out the work and all those who were left out in the 2010 counting would be given another chance to register themselves.

Jain said data would be provided to the Food Department also so that it could use it for verification of ration cards and computerize them.

Deputy Director General, Government of India, SK Chakraborty, through a presentation, described the process. He said agencies had been selected for undertaking biometric job. In Uttarakhand data of 7,814,507 people had been prepared.

He said the resident identity card would include 27 digit TIN number with district, tehsil and village codes. The card would be useful for security reason too and could be used for identity.

Dehradun, October 4
The girls contesting for Miss Uttarakhand Contest 2012 today got the opportunity to showcase their talent where Neha Mishra, contestant from Dehradun, and Dimple Rana from Roorkie won the title jointly.

Unlike other sub-contests which took place till now, the winners were declared only in this contest. The winners of rest of the sub-contests will be declared on the day of the final.

Dalip K Sindhi, organiser, said the decisions on other sub-contests were withheld to maintain the suspense and enthusiasm of the contests. It will not let their attention diverted by the outcome of the decisions. He said the exception was made only in the sub-contest of Miss Talent.

Neha Mishra stole the show by shaking her legs on a medley of western and Indian songs whereas Dimple gave her stiff competition by opting for semi classical song and doing exceptionally well. The judges had to accord the title to both beautiful girls.

Dehradun, October 4
The 5th Rohitash Singh Memorial Inter-School Boys Super 8 a side Cricket Tournament at The Heritage School today witnessed two matches.

The first match was played between the host The Heritage School and Carman School, which ended in a tie and had to be decided through a bowl out system in which Carman School emerged victorious.

Batting first, Carman School scored 42 runs in the first inning. In reply, The Heritage School scored 97 runs at the loss of 2 wickets. In the second innings, Carman scored 31 runs at a loss of 4 wickets whereas The Heritage School scored a total of 36 runs in its second innings. Thus the match was tied up at a score of 73 each. The match finally went in favour of Carman School after it was decided by a bowl out system.

In the second match, St Thomas College won the match against Guru Nanak Academy by 38 runs. In the first innings, GNA scored 31 runs at a loss of 6 wickets. St Thomas College scored 22 runs at a loss of 1 wicket in the first innings.

In the second innings, GNA scored 28 runs at a loss of 6 wickets whereas in reply St Thomas scored 38 runs losing no wicket in process, thus ensuring 8 wicket for St Thomas College.

Dehradun, October 4
In the Inter-Council Schools Senior Girls Table Tennis Tournament, Welham Girls’ School excelled both in team events and individual matches.

Welham Girls School led the tally followed by Unison World School.

The Heritage School stood third followed by Doon Blossom School that stood at the fourth place.

In the individual category, Welham Girls School led the list followed by Unison World School that stood second. 

Dehradun, October 4
In the District Sub-Junior (U-14) Basketball Championship, in the girls category, Unison World School beat Carman School 20-2 in a one-sided match.

Further, in the same category, St Thomas College beat St Mary School 10-8. DAV beat Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy 9-8 and Doon Girls School beat Summer Valley School 20-9.

In the boys section, St Mary School beat The Asian School 30-8, Welham Boys beat Scholar Home 32-2, DAV beat Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy 26-12 and Pestle Weed College beat Summer Valley School 22-6.