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High Court stays DPC meeting for DG, Health
Common norms for caste, domicile certificates sought
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Pranab invited to join Nanda Devi Raj Jat yatra
Mood low in BSP rank and file over decision not to fight Tehri bypoll
JUH backs Congress
State major centre of illegal trade in leopard body parts, says study
Focus on farming, sanitation to raise income of villagers: Jain
Bahuguna has links with underworld, says Trivender Rawat
Old Manorites’ silver jubilee celebrations begin
Hampton alumni to sponsor scholarship for student
Kumaon has potential to be leader in maths: Experts
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High Court stays DPC meeting for DG, Health
Dehradun, October 5 The meeting was stopped after Additional Director, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Dr RK Pant sought legal recourse saying that the Department of Health was discriminating against him by not filling the vacant posts of Director for
the general category. The stay on DPC meeting has come at a time when four posts of Director have been lying vacant for the last six months. There are six posts of Director, of which two have been already filled according to the state reservation policy, but the rest of the posts are still lying vacant. It is alleged that to pave the way for promotion of officiating Director CP Arya the department did not deliberately fill the four posts of Director. Had it been done, the members from the general category could have automatically become eligible for the post of Director General, Health and Family Welfare, as cited in the service rules. Besides Dr RK Pant, Dr RS Sahi, CMO, Almora, Dr Yogesh Sharma and Dr PC Kapri, all Additional Directors, are eligible for promotion to the post of Director and later Director General depending on their seniority. After the service rule No. 18 for government medical officers was amended in 2011, Pant, who is the senior most among them with 35 years of service, would also be eligible for the post of Director General. As Additional Director, NRHM, he would be completing his probation period in October. After the high court order the department would now have to first promote the Additional Directors to the posts of Director and then conduct the DPC meeting for the post of Director General. After Director General Dr JP Bhatt retired a few months ago, Dr CP Arya was appointed the officiating Director General. In order to pave the way for Dr CP Arya’s promotion, the DPC meeting for the post of Director General slated for today was to consider the eligibility of Dr CP Arya and Dr KL Arya, Director, Health and Family Welfare. Of the two, Dr CP Arya is senior. |
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Common norms for caste, domicile certificates sought
Dehradun, October 5 He referred to issues related to state domicile, caste certificate, reservation in promotion and condition of knowledge of dialects for the government jobs. Rathi said the state government must comply with the decision of the High Court with regard to the state domicile. “The state government must put an end to all speculation, confusion or voices of dissent by taking a resolute decision to go along with the High Court decision on the subject of state domicile. The caste certificate issue should also be resolved likewise. Here the government must remove the compulsion of possessing the legal or property documents pertaining to 1950 to obtain caste certificate. The yardstick for issuing caste or domicile certificate should be common.” While explaining about the rigmarole, people have to use these important documents, he said. “People run from pillar to post to obtain caste certificate to get the benefits regarding education and employment. But the process has been made so cumbersome that very few people get it. It has been 11 years since the state was carved out. Neither the issue pertaining to the caste certificates nor the state domicile has been resolved till date. The state government needs to decide on it on priority basis without indulging in mindless politics.” He also urged on removing the prior condition of knowledge of dialects, Kumaoni and Garhwali, to compete for the state government politics, calling it baseless. Sethi also favoured reservation in promotion. He said his organisation enjoyed the support of 42 other organisations belonging to various castes and communities and stressed that the state government could not overlook their demands. He said his organisation held protests in March and May last year after which the state government constituted a committee to look into their demands. The committee gave its report but the government did nothing on its recommendation. He said if the state government continued to pay no heed to their demands, soon they would start an agitation throughout the state. |
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Pranab invited to join Nanda Devi Raj Jat yatra
Dehradun, October 5 Led by Tarun Vijay, Rajya Sabha MP from Uttarakhand, the 15-member delegation, including Prabhat Shah Gangola, president of the Nanda Raj Jat Organising Samiti of Kumaon and Almora, and Jagar singer of international fame Basanti Bisht met Pranab and formally invited him to join the yatra at a point where he could come on a helicopter. Basanti enthralled the President with her rendition of Nanda Devi hymns in Garhwali language. The President showed keen interest in the activities and blessed the efforts for the conduct of the yatra. He said such yatras were a great occasion for national unity and social harmony and he would certainly examine if he could join the spiritual journey. The Nanda Devi Raj Jat yatra is world’s longest spiritual yatra, which involves 280 km of trekking in high altitude mountains, and is completed in 19 days. It symbolises the return of the daughter of the deity of Uttarakhand, Maa Nanda Devi, to Kailash, the abode of Shiva, every twelfth year. It is also a story of the difficult life of women of Uttarakhand and their emotional bondage with their mothers. Occurring every 12th year with a recorded history of more than 900 years, the yatra is also called Himalayan Kumbh of Uttarakhand. It passes through most difficult terrain of the Himalayas like Roop Kund at an altitude of 17,500 ft and completes at Hom Kund. The yatra is being held for the first time after the formation of Uttarakhand and hence there is an enhanced sense of festivities and preparation. Tarun Vijay has been campaigning for the successful completion of the yatra for the last six months as he is the chairman of Shri Nanda Raj Jat Poorv Peethika (preparatory) Committee. There are only three months for preparation because during the winter no work can take place in the upper regions of
Garhwal. |
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Mood low in BSP rank and file over decision not to fight Tehri bypoll
Dehradun, October 5 A sombre mood is prevailing among the BSP members who are feeling let down by the decision of party supremo Mayawati not to fight Tehri Lok Sabha byelection. Dehradun general secretary, BSP, Sahib Singh, said the entire state was reeling under the frenzy of election, whereas BSP workers sat quietly and sadly on one side. "BSP members, too, wanted to fight and show
their strength in the electoral arena. " On the issue of canvassing, he said: " Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna talked to party chief Mayawati for support in canvassing for which she had agreed. The party, however, made it clear to the Congress that it would campaign for it on the condition of travelling in its own vehicles, with their party flags and symbol, and not of the
Congress." But canvassing by the BSP is seen nowhere in sight. State BSP president Meghraj Singh Jaraware tried to evade the question, saying the party could not show up with a cavalcade and members due to enforcement of the model code of conduct, a reason which does not
hold ground. The vigorous canvassing by other involved political parties is going on at a feverish pitch. Singh clarified: " The canvassing by the BSP is almost nil due to inertia among members and above that, the Congress, too, did not make any fervent pleas to the BSP to campaign for it. So the BSP did not feel the need to take any initiative on its own." He emphasised that canvassing by the BSP could make a world of difference for the Congress. "The way Congress won Sitarganj, a bastion of the BSP, was all due to BSP's unequivocal support to it. Similarly, it can't win Tehri Lok Sabha seat as well if we field our candidate there." He also expressed concern, saying: "By deciding not to fight Tehri byelection, we have become worried about losing our voters. It was with great efforts that we had wooed them from the Congress, but they may slip away to the party with this election." |
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JUH backs Congress
Dehradun, October 5 While addressing a press conference along with former state president of the Samajwadi Party Vinod
Barthwal, he said, "I met Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna through Vinod Barthwal where I assured Bahuguna of the votes from the Muslim community from the JUH in the Tehri Lok Sabha poll." He said the Congress was the only party which could do welfare of the Muslims. On this occasion, city leader of the SP Arif Hussain Warsi was also present.
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State major centre of illegal trade in leopard body parts, says study
Dehradun, October 5 A leader in field of conservation since its establishment way back in 1976, Traffic has done a study entitled "Illuminating the Blind Spot: A study on illegal trade in leopard parts in India," exposing the plight of leopards in the country, and has identified Uttarakhand as a major source for leopard body parts that are in trade. "Uttarakhand has emerged as a major source of leopard parts in trade. Leopard parts are smuggled out of India to other countries in Asia, often via the porous border with neighbouring Nepal," the report stated. Significantly, Uttarakhand, with substantial population of leopards, shares its porous borders with Nepal and thus smuggling out leopard body parts from the hill state to Nepal perfectly suits the poachers. Traffic study at the national perspective reveals the plight of leopards, asserting that at least four leopards have been poached every week for at least 10 years in India, and their body parts sold by the illegal wildlife trade. Traffic today is a global network, research-driven and action-oriented organisation committed to delivering innovative and practical conservation solutions based on the latest information. The report recommends the establishment of a task force to tackle illegal trade in the areas identified as having the highest levels of leopard-related crime, as well as better regional cooperation between source, transit and market countries through initiatives such as the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement
Network. It calls for an official database along the lines of "Tigernet," used for tiger conservation in India. It would also help monitor the illegal leopard part trade. Studies are needed to assess the levels of threat from human-leopard conflict in the country. Rashid Raza, coordinator with Traffic in India and the lead author of the study, said: "Even though reports of illegal trade in leopard body parts are disturbingly frequent, the level of threat to leopards in the country has previously been unrecognised, and has fallen into our collective blind spot." Interestingly, the Uttarakhand wildlife authorities had some time back
come up with Special Operation Groups at Rajaji National Park and Corbett National Park to check illegal wildlife trade but so far have met with little
success. |
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Focus on farming, sanitation to raise income of villagers: Jain
Dehradun, October 5 It may be noted that the Uttarakhand Government and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust had signed an MoU in 2004 for 10 years for running the Himotthan project under which various rural development projects are being run on water, sanitation, agriculture, animal husbandry, development of forest and communities living there. It was revealed at the meeting that these programmes were being undertaken through 34 clusters in 30 development blocks and rural population was made aware of water purification and its preservation. So far, 2,773 households in 43 villages had been benefited. In all, 89 water sources and 1,442 sanitation units had been established. In the third phase of the project (2011-13), 2,500 households of 50 villages had been included. Under the agriculture programme, farming of herbal plants, aromatic plants and other cash crops are being encouraged and connected to marketing. Under the organic certification, 15,000 farmers are working in 4,000 hectares and 28 produces are being sold through marketing link. Under the animal husbandry programme, integrated fodder and livestock development projects are being run and a sum of Rs 1.30 crore has been disbursed to the farmers for milk vans. Fifteen trained para-veterinary doctors had reared 1,500 cows of good breed. This has also generated employment opportunities for local villagers. In all, 12 federations of women have been formed in the dairy sector and milk is being produced by various federations with turnover standing at Rs 2.15 crore. Under the forest project, the villagers are being encouraged to plant bamboo. Under this project, 1300 people of 32 villages had been benefited. Five independent cooperatives have been formed and bamboo and ringal trees are being planted in the 2,746 ha area through these cooperatives. |
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Bahuguna has links with underworld, says Trivender Rawat
Mussoorie, October 5 Stepping up the heat, former Cabinet minister from Trivendar Rawat, addressing a public rally, alleged that the Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had links with the underworld groups operating from outside the state. Rawat said Bahuguna had a close relationship with the underworld and it had been proved by account number published in a magazine several years back, indicating the transfer of money in the account of the people involved in underworld activities. BC Khanduri said the Congress government had broken the spine of the common man as the prices of every commodity had skyrocketed making their life miserable. He appealed to people to vote in favour of the BJP by electing Mala Raj Lakshmi and giving a befitting reply to the Congress in Tehri bypoll. |
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Old Manorites’ silver jubilee celebrations begin
Mussoorie, October 5 The Alumni Association, also known as Manorite Association, felicitated former students from the golden jubilee (1952) and silver jubilee (1987) batches with mementos. The book written by Bill Lethorn and sponsored by AP Singh, the old student from Canada in memory of the late MC Wood, was released on the occasion. MC Wood was a sports teacher who had inspired many old students. The former students TS Bedi (62 batch), Air Vice Marshall HS Ahluwalia (61 batch), Brigadiar BS Butalia also from 62 batch shared their childhood escapades on the occasion. Vernon Sheperd, former student who was also a sports instructor of the school, said he had an old association with school and it was great to be among the old friends and share with them old memories of the school. Speaking on the difference in the culture among the current and old students, he said the interest of the students were different now. The infrastructure of the school had improved and had become more tech savvy now. “In our days, we use to travel on foot to Mussoorie to watch movies but students now are much more interested in going for outing in taxis. Other former student Harbinder Singh, owner of a stud farm in Punjab, reminisced that during their days in the school, they used to travel to Dehradun on foot through Rajpur and return on foot via Jharipani. Brother Christopher, the principal of the school, said that the event was being organised to celebrate the silver jubilee of the old students association. He further said the current students of the school were really motivated by the presence of the former students as they still had the same Manorite spirit still intact in them. IS Bedi, secretary of the Manorite Alumni Association, speaking on the occasion said a lot of efforts had been made to bring the former students closer to each other by organising such events. St. George’s College (Mussoorie) is a premier boarding school. The school is spread over 400 acres and was founded in 1853 by the Capuchin Fathers and entrusted to the Society of the Brothers of St. Patrick (Ireland) in 1894. It was opened in a cottage known as Manor House, the name by which the campus is still known. The students are known as Manorites. |
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Hampton alumni to sponsor scholarship for student
Mussoorie, October 5 The ex-students also donated a running trophy in memory of late Sir Gordon, a popular sports teacher of the school, who was close to the students of the school. The trophy will be given to the student of the year on annual basis. The Principal of the School, Sister Sophie, welcomed the former students and commended their effort of forming an alumni association of the school. She further said it was indeed a big day in the history of the school. Sister Sophie further said she was hopeful that the alumni association would help in promoting and encouraging a positive image of the school. The proposal of naming Ramesh Mittal as the president of the association was also put forward in the function here. The rest of the executive body will
be constituted later after consultation with all former students. Students of the school presented dance and cultural items on the occasion. Trevor Dias, a former student from the 1968 batch, said for him it was like coming home as he had spent his early years in the school. He commended the efforts of forming the alumni association by the former students, especially from the batch of 1981. Bharat Baweja, Prashant Anand, Manish Aggrawal, Navin Jain, Pawan Raj, Jatinder Luthra, Sanjay Verma, Pankaj Sharda, Ajaybir Singh Sodhi Abhishek Aggarwal, Amit Sandilya, Vinay Kasana and others were present on the occasion. |
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Kumaon has potential to be leader in maths: Experts
Pithoragarh, October 5 He was speaking at a mathematical conference being held by the centre for excellence in mathematical sciences on the SS Jeena campus of Kumaon University at Almora yesterday. The region had been a leader in the studies of Indian philosophy and yoga in ancient times. The national mathematical conference was being organised this year to mark the 125th birth anniversary of great Indian mathematician Professor Ramanujam. The conference from October 3 to 6 is witnessing the participation of leading mathematicians from the country and abroad. “The conference aims to re-establish the Uttarakhand region as a national leader in mathematical studies,” said Prof HS Dhami, organiser of the conference and convener of the centre for excellence in mathematical sciences, Almora. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, chairman, National Centre for Mathematics at IIT Mumbai, Prof MS Raghunathan, a Padma Shri awardee for his work in the sphere of mathematical studies, said his school would establish a mathematical centre at Almora as this had been remained a centre of excellence in higher studies of philosophy and yoga. “It could be started only after the state government comes to its aid,” said Professor Raghunathan. According to the convener of the conference, the conference would witness deliberations from eminent mathematicians from the country and abroad, like Professioor V Kumar, professor of mathematics in Toronto University, Canada, Professor Gadadhar Mishra from Indian institute of Science, Bangalore, M Baninathan from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Professor Anupam Saikia from IIT Guwahati and Professor SG Dani from IIT Mumbai. “Besides these mathematicians, more than 60 participants from the universities situated in Garhwal and Kumaon are also participating in the conference,” said Professor Dhami. “We have also released a souvenir on the occasion, Almora Mathematical Survey, which aims at collecting work done in the sphere of mathematics and its sub-disciplines in Uttarakhand in the last 50 years and possibilities of the mathematical studies in future in the region,” said
Dhami. |
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The Nainital High Court today put a stay on the department promotion committee
(DPC) meeting for the post of Director General, Health and Family Welfare, upsetting the plans of the Department of Health. The high court ordered the department to first fill the posts of Director that had been lying vacant for the last few months before conducting the DPC meeting.
A delegation comprising cultural ambassadors, writers and editors from Uttarakhand today called upon President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi and invited him to join the Nanda Devi Raj Jat yatra next year.
Led by Tarun Vijay, Rajya Sabha MP from Uttarakhand, the 15-member delegation, including Prabhat Shah
Gangola, president of the Nanda Raj Jat Organising Samiti of Kumaon and Almora, and Jagar singer of international fame Basanti Bisht met Pranab and formally invited him to join the yatra.
Dehradun, October 5
More than 25 former students from different batches of Convent of Jesus and Mary School, Hampton Court, pledged to sponsor a scholarship for the most deserving and needy students during their reunion celebration function on the school premises yesterday.
