Another member of bike lifting gang nabbed
Dehradun January 7
The police today arrested the third member of the Naushad gang Devender alias Chotu, resident of Bijnor, who had on the run when two other members, Naushad and Narpal, were apprehended by the police for bike theft two days ago.

Mahindra employees donate blood
Mussoorie, January 7
Over 50 units of blood were collected in a blood donation camp organised by the Club Mahindra Holiday Group at Avalon Resort here today.

Dehradun, January 7
The shortage of doctors at Coronation Hospital that was in the eye of storm after an emergency medical officer (EMO) was thrashed has taken an epidemic form.

A total of 23 posts are vacant in the hospital, including the post of senior physician, pathologist, orthopaedic surgeon and skin specialist.

As Doon Hospital attracts a large number of patients from neighbouring states, Coronation Hospital was expected to share the burden and with this aim in mind, speciality streams were shifted from Doon Hospital.

Despite the efforts in the past couple of years, the shortage of doctors continues to affect the functioning of the hospital. The recent transfers in July 2012 further dealt a blow on the number of doctors at the hospital.

After a senior pathologist was posted out of hospital, the pathology department is being single-handedly run by a single technician.

“The posts of senior and general pathologist are vacant in the pathology department with a single technician preparing reports and tests. Sometimes expert opinion is required. Who do we turn to then?” said a patient.

On any given day, the skin department, OPD, Doon Hospital, is inundated with patients.

It attracts a large number of patients on any given day.

If Coronation Hospital had managed to fill the vacant slot, the problem would have been addressed.

The acute shortage of doctors even in hospitals situated in Dehradun does not augur well for the state that has not been able to provide health facilities to a large number of people in the hill districts.

After more than 10 years, Coronation Hospital has finally got an ENT, who joined the duty on Saturday.

He is among the 26 doctors who were selected through the state Public Service Commission.

Interestingly, even the nephrology unit being run under the public private partnership does not have the services of a nephrologist (MD). 

Dehradun, January 7
In the peak time of winter season, when news regarding the death of homeless due to extremely cold weather at nights are being reported all across the country as well as the state, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) and the state administration feel their jobs are over after giving all responsibility of overseeing the operations of night shelter homes to NGOs.

In reality, most of the homeless are unaware about the existence of such night shelter homes running in the city. The facilities are not up to the mark in these shelter homes either.

One shelter home situated at Parade Ground, which the DMC boasted to be running by itself in the city, was found to be occupied by the employees union of the Basic Shiksha wing of the Education Department.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli expressed ignorance about its occupation. The claims of officials regarding the under-utilization of shelter homes are ludicrous and highly insensitive.

Executive Engineer, DMC, Ravi Pandey, said despite four shelter homes in the city, homeless people did not prefer to stay there at night. Mayor Vinod Chamoli too stated that the poor people opted to spend their nights on roadsides in the open because they did not want to let go of the occupied sitting space.

District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam had said it was seen throughout the country that shelter homes were not much frequented by the homeless. His version, however, is belied by the Chukhuwala shelter home, which is run by a trust and registers cent per cent occupancy that too when trust members charge Rs 5 from each occupant per night.

A member Kusum said they maintained proper hygiene in the shelter home and provided good and clean bedding.

In other three shelter homes which are shown to be run by the DMC but actually by an NGO, Hope is doing all labour of bringing homeless from roads to the shelter home. Not only this, community head Sanjiv Issachar said they provided wooden beds and warm bedding and blankets also for the homeless at the shelter homes nearby DMC building, Niranjanpur Mandi and ISBT homes.

He showed the blankets provided by the DMC which were of very poor quality. Owing to this, the NGO had to chip in and buy better blankets and mattresses.

There was a lot of space in the shelter home but the NGO lacked resources to arrange for more bedding and blankets.

One may wonder where the DMC, which gets Rs 10 lakh budget for distribution of blankets, and the district administration was spending this money meant for the homeless. It was found that the Niranjanpur Mandi shelter home, which has two vacant shops in the wholesale grain market area, is much used by truck drivers and cleaners rather than the homeless, who have no means to escape from ruthless winter nights.

Dehradun, January 7
Tibetan men, women and children living in exile in Dehradun took out a silent march to express their solidarity with the self-immolators in Tibet, who have been fighting against Chinese repression.

Tibetan monks take out a march against the Chinese atrocities in Dehradun on Monday. Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

In the morning, members of the Tibetans community gathered at the Tibetan market and paid obeisance to the 95 Tibetans who had immolated themselves since 2009. Later, political representatives of the Tibetan parliament in exile addressed the gathering.

“The Chinese authorities continue to deny human rights to the Tibetans who are being forced to take the drastic step of self-immolation. The Chinese regime should end its repressive policies,” said Venerable Kalsang Damdul, MP, Tibetan parliament in exile.

He said the Chinese government continued to remain oblivious to the aspirations and fundamental rights of the Tibetan people.

Tibetans hold a rally in Dehradun against Chinese atrocities on Monday.  Tribune photo: Vinod Pundir

He said countries, including the United States of America and Italy, had passed a resolution against the Chinese aggression.

Tibetan Welfare officer Thinley Jigme said the Tibetans had never resorted to violence but the oppression by the Chinese continued unabated. “The authorities are suspicious of every Tibetan living in Tibet. The family members of the self-immolators are considered outlaws and are arrested and imprisoned. The situation in Tibet is worsening,” said Jigme.

After the address, the protestors marched through the city carrying placards, denouncing the Chinese oppression.

The silent marchers passed through the Darshan Lal chowk, Paltan Bazaar, Clock Tower, Astley Hall and finally concluded at Tibetan Market.

Those who participated in the march included Dawa Tsering, chairman, representative committee of the Tibetan parliament in exile, Venerable Kalsang Damdul, MP, Venerable Mogru Tenpa, MP, and Gang Lhamo, MP, Tibetan parliament in exile.

Office-bearers of various Dehradun-based Tibetan organisations, including Sonam, member of the Regional Freedom Movement (Rajpur), Tsering Yonodon, member of pradhan sabha, (Sahastradhara), Karma Chodak and schoolchildren were part of the protest.

Dehradun January 7
The police today arrested the third member of the Naushad gang Devender alias Chotu, resident of Bijnor, who had on the run when two other members, Naushad and Narpal, were apprehended by the police for bike theft two days ago.

His accomplice Sunil, who also hail from Bijnor, was arrested. Both were nabbed from the Railway crossing at Mohkampur. The police recovered 14 bikes from them. It was from Naushad and Narpal too, the police had recovered 14 bikes.

A total of 28 motorcycles had been recovered from this gang, which is hailed as one of the biggest recoveries of stolen motorcycles by the Dehradun police.

Director General of Police Satyavrat Bansal has announced a reward of Rs 15,000 to the joint team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Nehru Colony team for busting the gang. SSP Kewal Khurana also rewarded the teams with Rs 2,500.

Addressing a press conference, Kewal Khurana said, “A case had been registered at the Raipur police station from Chotu and Sunil."

Three more bikes were found hidden at Bhagat Singh Colony whist nine others were recovered from jungles bordering Dharuwala town of Bijnor, at the information provided by the accused. The bikes were concealed in the sugarcane fields of the jungles.” He said the accused sold some bikes in Bijnor and Saharanpur for which two police teams had already been sent to recover them as well.

Another member of bike lifting gang nabbed

The accused, who had been involved in the bike theft, had admitted of committing many such thefts at various places in the city.

Among the 14 bikes, cases of five bikes are also registered at the Nehru Colony police station, two at Raipur and one at Kotwali. Four other bikes have been stolen from Selaqui and Saharanpur whereas the information about the rest of the vehicles is being traced from their chassis and engine numbers.

A few of those who had filed these reports had come to claim their vehicles at the SSP office.

The SSP applauded station officer, Nehru Colony, Amarjit Singh, head of the Special Operations Group Mukesh Tyagi and constable Chaman for putting up lots of efforts in nabbing the culprits in this case.