Musician couple brings laurels to town by winning YUCA award 
Mussoorie, April 8
The eminent musician couple from Uttarakhand and resident of Mussoorie has brought laurels to the town by winning two awards in the field of music composition and singing at Yuva Uttarakhand Cine Award (YUCA) in New Delhi yesterday.

Shiv Sena chief detained, let off
Dehradun April 8
The Kotwali police released Shiv Sena state president Ajay Singhal and 25 others who were arrested late on Sunday night for allegedly assaulting BJP activists.

Dehradun, April 8
Faced with the prospect of being overlooked in the matter of seniority after several Senior Medical Officers in the general cadre were made Joint Directors, specialist doctors, who were ahead in seniority and even scored high in confidential report, are now planning to knock at the door of the judiciary to get justice.

Recently, the Department of Medical and Health Services had promoted 98 Senior Medical Officers to the posts of Joint Director.

On the list, a majority of the doctors from the general cadre, though much junior to their colleagues in seniority and performance (based on confidential report) to the specialist cadre, were promoted before the specialists.

Senior officials in the Department of Medical and Health Services say that discrepancies had crept up in the cadre allocation after the government agreed to accept the Tikku Committee Report in 2009 that had recommended the creation of two cadres (general and specialist cadres).

While the two separate cadres were created in 2009, the government invited applications from doctors in the general cadre who were interested in taking up specialisation (a PG diploma or a PG degree), the expenses of which were to be borne by the Uttarakhand government.

To that end, several doctors in the general cadre applied and on completion of the degree and diploma by them, they began receiving the PG degree/diploma allowance (Rs 400 for MD/MS degree and Rs 200 for diploma) bringing them on a par with the specialists.

"In an irrational move, casting aside all rules the government again went ahead and gave the option to the doctors who had undertaken specialisation to opt for the general cadre, once again.

This discrepancy went undetected. But now with large-scale promotions taking place, the doctors (specialists) have threatened to approach the High Court," said Dr SD Joshi, former president of the Provincial Medical Health Services (PMHS).

The discrepancies have emerged to such an extent that the candidates, who had joined the service in 1991 in the general cadre, have got promotion earlier than the specialists, who joined the services in '87.

Besides the number of posts vacant in the general cadre too continue to be less in comparison to the specialist cadre.

"The promotional avenues are more for the general cadre. The government should have removed the discrepancies at the earliest by merging the cadre and creating a single cadre," said Dr RS Chauhan, ENT specialists.

Dehradun April 8
The Kotwali police released Shiv Sena state president Ajay Singhal and 25 others who were arrested late on Sunday night for allegedly assaulting BJP activists.

The police had to budge before the aggressive demonstration of Shiv Sena members before the Kotwali police station and release the arrested persons. It was on Sunday the police had arrested Sonu for beating up a worker at Jhanda Mela on some matter.

At this, BJP councillor Ajay Singhal came to seek his release with his supporters.

Amid this, Gaurav Kumar also reached Kotwali who was thrashed by BJP activists, owing to their old rivalry.

The police arrested Singhal and 25 others. Today, a large number of Shiv Sena members reached Kotwali and laid siege to it.

They levelled allegations against the police for sparing those who were at fault and arrested the innocent in the case. The police released them on bail.

Haridwar, April 8
Under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the ambitious solid waste management project has been launched in Haridwar.

The project was much delayed as in 2009 under JNNURM the solid waste management scheme was granted for the city, but due to poor working of the abolished municipal committee board and later due to elevation of the civic body to the status of Municipal Corporation, the scheme got further delayed.

But now the project worth Rs 18 crore has been launched in the city with posh Aawas Vikas and Vivek Vihar Colonies being the maiden colonies where door-to-door garbage collection is being done.

After these colonies, the project will be launched in a phased manner in all the 30 wards of the Municipal Corporation. Private firm KRL has been given the project which will be taking user charges from the local residents.

User charge has been tipped at Rs 30 for each household while for commercial establishments like hotels, lodges, dharamsalas and industries the user charge will be fixed in the coming days, after taking into account various aspects. Shedding light on the project, City Magistrate Jeevan Singh Nambiyal said that this pilot project will change the face of the city, particularly the heaps of garbage and filth that get accumulated in the colonies.

He urged local people to utilise the door-to-door collection facility in helping making the Ganga city clean and green.

Town Health Officer Diwakar Mishra said that the company employees will be collecting garbage from households in Aawas Vikas and Vivek Vihar Colonies from 8 am to 1pm and will then offload the collected garbage into big trucks, which will be ferried to trenching grounds.

Mona Verma, resident of Model Colony, expressed happiness over the door-to-door collection scheme, otherwise it was quite a headache to dump the garbage owing to few garbage dustbins which are located at far away points.

Dehradun, April 8
Although the Centre has failed to concede to the state government's demand for extending the deadline for fulfilling infrastructure norms in elementary schools according to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the fund-starved state has managed to make some headway in providing water and toilets in most elementary schools.

However, it continues to lag behind in providing electricity, playgrounds, the construction of boundary walls and putting up ramps for children with disabilities in most of the schools.

The state, which has so far shown keen resolve on fulfilling the obligation under the RTE Act, has to make provisions for providing electricity in 3,928 elementary schools, playgrounds in 5,247 schools, ramps and railings in 5,526 schools and boundary walls in 2,868 schools.

“In view of the Supreme Court ruling, a great deal of importance was given to providing girls' toilets and drinking water facilities in most of the schools. We are now left with 2,053 schools that are without girls' toilets, 41 schools without buildings and 617 schools without sufficient classrooms,” said Anil Negi, Director, Basic Education.

Almora district has a total of 474 schools without girls' toilets, Pauri 616, Uttarkashi 118, Udham Singh Nagar 382 and Rudraprayag 141 toilets.

There are a total of 3,928 schools in Uttarakhand, including 956 in Chamoli, 975 in Tehri and 140 in Nainital, that are without electricity supply.

All along, the Department of School Education was banking on the release of money from the Central Government for the implementation of the RTE norms. However, the Centre has drastically cut the proposal for 2013-2014 under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from Rs 847.79 crore to Rs 367 crore.

“Our fund situation is very tight. But we have made a commitment to fulfil the norms and will have to depend on the state government for the budgetary allocations. Our reimbursement budget (fee given to private schools in lieu of admitting students belonging to the weaker section under the RTE Act) is expected to touch Rs 200 crore every year,” said RK Kunwar, Additional Director, SSA.

Mussoorie, April 8
The demand for sewerage treatment plant (STP) at the two famous tourist destinations of Dhanualti and Kempty is gaining momentum.

A delegation under the banner of Jaunpur Sangharsh Morcha met Urban Development Minister Pritam Panwar and presented a memorandum demanding two STPs, one at Dhanaulti and the other at Kempty Falls as both places witnessed huge influx of tourists on annual basis, resulting in accumulation of filth and garbage in large proportions.

The members of delegation said that due to absence of any STP plant, both places were filled with garbage and tourists had to bear the foul smell emanating from the filth much to their disgust.

The member of the morcha, Govind Nautiyal, said that the Urban Development Minster had accepted their demands and had assured that he would direct the officials to do the needful in this matter of importance.

Dehradun, April 8
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam held a meeting with the principals/managements of various public schools in the city to educate them about the Right to Education Act (RTE). He also put across complaints before them which came to him through helpline launched to receive complaints from parents against schools.

Purushottam said he observed that the schools were hesitating in facilitating admission to children of poor families under the Act.

He also objected citing various incidents where children of this category had been failed in various classes. One child was failed in class I as well. He said the children under the bracket of BPL families who got admission under 25 per cent quota fixed as per RTE Act could not be failed in exams from class I up to class VIII. He urged school authorities not to burden children with undue stress or mental torture of any kind. He said the schools could neither deny admission to these children nor could expel them from the schools.

The DM also brought attention to the issue of significant increase in school fee effected every year. He said the fee increase should not go beyond 10 to 15 per cent annually. He also warned schools against taking capitation fee or screening test of parents/guardians of students. He said the children of those schools which did not have provision of classes up to VIII had all the rights to get transfer certificate and admission in other schools without paying any admission fee under the Act.

The DM said last year they could achieve 65 per cent target in facilitating admision to poor children but this year, they would touch cent per cent target by April 30.

Some principals also put up cases of those parents who were doing well but still availed free education for their children under RTE Act. To this, the DM asked them to bring up such cases before him where he would cancel their admissions.

Purushottam asked the school authorities not to allow students below 18 to use two-wheelers in schools. He also urged them to propel students to bring polythene bags from homes to school premises on April 12, from where the administration would collect them. 

Dehradun, April 8
Dr KK Rattu, a senior officer of the Indian Broadcasting Service, took over as new Director/head of programme of the Doordarshan, Dehradun.

Dr Rattu, besides being an expert media professional, is also an author of Hindi and Punjabi. Dr Rattu was transferred here from Doordarshan Kendra, Chandigarh.

He said his first priority would be to start new programmes from DD, Dehradun, with greater emphasis on the language and culture of the state. As a public broadcaster, the Doordarshan is a powerful tool to change the society, said Dr Rattu. Recipient of Bhartendu Harish Chandra Award of the Ministry of Information and Broadcast, Dr Rattu authored more than 60 books on the media and television journalism so far.