Dehradun, July 19
Heavy rains continued to lash various parts of Uttarakhand, especially Kumaon, leading to landslides and rising water levels in several rivers.

Intermittent showers were reported in Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat districts in the Kumaon region.

Separate cases of landslides in two villages in the Munsiyari area of Pithoragarh district caused damage to six houses.

All major rivers flowing through the state registered an increase in water levels, including the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Kosi and the Sharda.

"We are consistently monitoring the water levels and are on an alert to deal with any eventuality," the district authorities said today.

Meanwhile, a team of officials from various Union ministries headed by Joint Secretary (Home) Lokesh Jha met Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar today to discuss the losses caused by the last month's natural disaster in the state.

Later, the team left for a tour of the affected areas, where relief work is continuing amid heavy rains.

Chandigarh, July 19
As many as 1,604 landslides have been identified along the river valleys in Uttarakhand a month after flash floods ravaged large parts of the state. A cloudburst and heavy rains on June 16 and 17 in and around Kedarnath had caused flash floods that resulted in a heavy loss of life and property.

Data based upon satellite imagery released by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) today showed these landslides along the valleys of the Mandakini, the Mandani, the Kali, the Madhyamaheshwar, the Bhillangana and parts of the Alaknanda from Srinagar to Chamoli.

The figure is expected to increase as an inventory of landslides in other affected parts in the state is still under way. Also, some tracts under a cloud cover have not been covered. Some existing landslides had also got reactivated during the rains last month.

The NRSC used the semi-automatic detection method using standard algorithms to detect landslides and generate its reports. The landslide inventory is being carried out for the affected areas using pre and post event satellite imagery from ISRO’s Resourcesat-2.

The major towns that lie in the areas affected by the landslides are Kedarnath, Sonprayag, Gaurikund, Ukhimath, Guptkashi, Mansuna, Phata, Agastmuni, Rudraprayag, Srinagar, Gauchar, Karanprayag, Nandprayag and Chamoli.

There were also reports that fresh rains earlier this month had triggered more landslides that partially blocked the flow of the Alaknanda in the upper reaches near its place of origin and created a lake a few kilometres northwest of Badrinath and Mana village. This lake was reported to be in danger of bursting. The reports based upon images of the site released by the NRSC had forced the state government to sound an alert. The bursting of the lake would have inundated areas downstream.

Later, a 12-member fact-finding team of scientists conducted an aerial survey of the area and dismissed the threat of a lake being formed. It claimed that a track of avalanches in the images had been misinterpreted as a lake.

Hyderabad, July 19
Parts of the Himalayan region are facing the risk of major earthquakes, says a study conducted by the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI).

"The conclusion was reached following seismic imaging (similar to human body imaging) of the Kumaon-Garhwal region in Uttarakhand for the purpose of the study," said Shyam Rai, Chief Scientist (Seismic Tomography), who led the team of NGRI scientists.

The study, also contributed by Stanford University of United States, was conducted from April, 2005 to June, 2008 as sought by the Union Government and the initial report was submitted in 2010. However, full details regarding seismic imaging and other aspects of the study were found later.

Asked if the recent heavy rains in Uttarakhand were in any way related to the findings, he replied in the negative, but said they are coupled systems.

"Uttarakhand was chosen because space measurements were available, which show that the strain build-up is maximum in this area. So, the chance of having an earthquake also is the maximum. So, they wanted to know where the earthquakes are occurring. Also, in Kumaon, there was a major earthquake in 1803," Rai said. Quoting from British gazettes of the date, he said the effects of the 1803 quake were felt right up to Lucknow.

"If nothing bigger, even if that has to occur now, with this whole bunch of new constructions and dams and large population, the effect would be far more severe. It is in this context, the government decided that we should have a proper monitoring," Rai said.

He said that several destructive earthquakes had occurred along the part of Indian Himalayan belt from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh.

Geophysicists found that 90 per cent of earthquakes were concentrated along a line that passes through Badrinath, Kedarnath and goes up to north-west Himalayas.

The NGRI, under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is the country's largest research and development organisation.— PTI 

Mussoorie, July 19
The future of students at Government Inter college, Kyari, in Thatyur block of district Tehri Garhwal is in jeopardy due to the absence of teaching staff for the past two years since its up-gradation.

The apathy of the state education department which boasts of running several educational programs for the benefit of the poor students can be gauged from the fact, that the school was upgraded from Junior high school to Inter College in 2011 and the school does not have a single teacher for class 11 and 12, leaving the students to the mercy of overburdened teachers of class 10.

The Junior high school itself is also facing staff crunch as the post of one clerk and that of class fourth employees have remained vacant since its inception.

The school building is also in shambles as several classroom walls have developed cracks and worn at various places endangering the lives of the students who are forced to study in the school verandah.

As many as 318 students of the school have no desk and chairs.

Randhir, a student of class 12 said they were unable to understand what was being taught by makeshift staff from junior high school as the teachers were under qualified to teach the subject like mathematics.

“We have no other option. The inter school at block headquarter in Thatyur has also refused admission to us as the inter school is also overcrowded," added Randhir.

The acting head master of the school, Ramesh Chandra Chamoli, informed the Tribune that the school was being run without regular headmaster since 2007.

He further said around 72 students of class ninth were being adjusted in the science lab due to the absence of adequate infrastructure. The teaching staff of class 10 was forced to impart education to the senior classes.

"The intermediate college requires nine teachers for the proper functioning of the school," added Chamoli.

BJP MLA from Dhanaulti assembly segment, Mahavir Singh Rangad, said he had apprised about the situation to the Chief Minister but the plea of providing adequate staff was still not fulfilled despite repeated reminders.

Chief District Education Officer BS Rawat said without clear guidelines he was unable to make any arrangement of the staff for the school. He assured that he would talk to the concerned agency and try to construct more rooms for the students in the near future. The parents have threatened to take to streets if the school is not provided with adequate staff and infrastructure soon.

Dehradun, July 19
Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) teachers, who have been demanding permanent appointments were lathicharged by the police today, after they forcibly tried to go to the Chief Minister's residence in Dehradun.

Led by the state President Anup Jadli, TET teachers association members gathered at the old Raipur bus-stand dharna site and subsequently marched toward the Chief Minister's residence.

The protesters raised slogans against state government. They were prevented from marching forward in Hathibarkala in New Cantt Road.

The angry protesters staged a dharna at the barricading. The police officials urged the protesters to end the protest ensuring smooth flow of traffic. This further irked the TET protesters resulting in skirmishes between the police and the protesters.

After failing to convince the protesters, police had to ultimately resort to lathicharge, resulting in minor injuries to some protesters including women. Some of the protesters were also taken into preventive custody, but were released later.

Sushil Joshi, Anil Kotnala, Rajesh Pandey, Deepa Aswal, Rekha Negi and Neelam Tomar were prominent among the protesters.

There are 2,000 TET teachers in the state who are demanding permanent employment.

Haridwar, July 19
"Discipline and dedication are very important in a student's life. Without this, he/she cannot achieve success," said Dev Sanskriti University Chancellor Pranav Pandya here today.

He was addressing students on the concluding day of a three-day orientation programme on the university campus. The programme was organised for freshers.

Pandya also cited the life and teachings of Shantikunj founder Pt Shri Ram Acharya. “You should work in a disciplined manner. Success is achievable but its more important to maintain it with dignity and right ethics," said Pandya.

Registrar Sandeep Kumar said coordination, respect for teachers, time management and acceptability made a student an ideal one. -—TNS

Dehradun, July 19
The stalemate between the Doon Valley Waste Management (DVWM) and the Mukhya Nagar Adhkari (MNA), Dehradun Municipal Corporation, over garbage collection and the payment of dues came to an end today.

A six-member committee has been constituted to look into the grievances of the DVWM. The committee will have three members from the DMC and three from the company.

Additional Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Harshvardhan Mishra, senior health officer Gurpal Singh and executive engineer Ravi Pandey will represent the DMC team.

Mayor Vinod Chamoli said the committee would look into all issues.

A delegation of Congress councillors, led by MLA, Rajpur Road, Rajkumar, also met the MNA today. Delegation members asked him to take over the sanitation system of the city. The MNA had also made up his mind and called a meeting of supervisors to prepare a strategy in this regard.

However, on the intervention of the Mayor, a meeting was convened with the MNA, the AMNA and Director, DVWM, Sidharth Jain. At the meeting, it was decided that the company would continue to undertake garbage collection work.

However, some of the demands raised by the company were not accepted at the meeting. Ashok Kumar said: “The company asked us to raise the tipping free from Rs 365 per tonne of garbage to Rs 525. But we rejected the demand and told it that only Rs 15 can be increased annually as per the term of the contract. The District Magistrate has been apprised of a proposal regarding sanctioning of funds to build a concrete road in front of a trenching ground. The pending amount of the tipping fee of the last month will be released soon.”

Jain said as the authorities had assured them releasing the tipping fee of the last month, which was Rs 20 lakh, he would now be able to pay salaries to his staff and arrange for fuel for the vehicles. The issue related to a raise in the tipping fee would be solved at the Secretariat level.

Dehradun, July 19
Congress councillors are demanding garbage collection work to be withdrawn from DVWM company while MLA Rajkumar wants the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) to take over the project.

Rajkumar said when DVWM was not allotted the project sanitary workers of the Swatchta Samiti were handling cleanliness work of roads. NGO Pramukh was helping in door-to-door garbage collection. But the DMC was not earning anything in the entire exercise.

He added, “The DMC will earn good revenue if it takes over the door-to-door garbage collection work and charges a monthly fee from residents. It can also motivate workers of the Swatchta Samiti by raising their salary from a paltry Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000 per month. NGO Pramukh too can be involved. Vehicles, rehries, rickshaws and all paraphernalia engaged in the garbage collection work in the city belong to the DMC.”

Rajkumar said, if needed, the DMC could also hire sanitary workers from outside.

Councillor Beena said, “DVWM has been blackmailing the administration time and again. It is charging Rs 20 lakh from the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), besides a monthly fee from residents for garbage collection. But still the company director contends that it is incurring losses and is not able to pay salaries to employees. This is not acceptable to us.”

Councillor Jagdish Dhiman said since this solid waste management project was running under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rural Mission (JNNURM) and could not be scrapped, the DMC could take over the garbage collection work till a scientific landfill site was ready by next year. he project could be handed over to the company later.

It is to be noted here that the DVWM director has been saying that once the landfill site is ready at Shishambara they will start making profits on account of processing of garbage. This will provide them byproducts in the form of manure and recycled items.

Until then he demanded a hike in the tipping fee and a financial assistance to tide over the company losses. This has become a bone of contention between the local administration and the company. 

Dehradun, July 19
The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) faction led by Trivender Singh Panwar will hold its two-day annual convention in the city on July 24 and 25. The election for the post of party president would also be held at the convention.

Panwar said, “The party convention will be held on June 24 and 25 at Jain Dharamshala. Rumours that the election has been postponed are false.”

Asked whether they would come to the party office after the conclusion of the election, Panwar said, “We have not decided about it yet. We are busy with preparations for the convention at present.”

However, UKD general secretary Shanti Singh Bisht did not mince words when he said, “We will come to the party office the same way the Kashi Singh Aeri’s faction did and celebrate. If the Aeri faction tries to interrupt, there can be a serious law and order problem.” 

Dehradun, July 19
The Punjab National Bank (PNB) held a retail and manufacturing enterprise camp in Dehradun. The bank launched a special Education Loan Campaign for Uttarakhand students.

Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath, handed over the sanctioned loan letters to 101 beneficiaries amounting to Rs 21 crore.

Out of these, 51 education loans were given to students for pursuing higher studies. Kamath said students who were willing to avail education loan should not be denied.

Field General Manager, Meerut, MK Pangty said availing education loan from PNB was easy. He detailed the students about the procedure of applying loan with the bank.

Dehradun Circle Head Ashok Aneja, thanked all the customers for sparing their valuable time to make the loan disbursement camp a great success.

AGM VK mahajan, AGM of circle office SK Bajaj and managers of all the branches were present in the function.

Dehradun, July 19
Some girls complained of nausea after taking folic acid iron supplements on empty stomach at a local school in Mianwala in Dehradun, the Chief Medical officer (CMO), Dehradun district, Dr A S Sangar has now instructed the auxillary nurses and midwives (ANMs) to monitor the administering of the tablets in Schools and also held consultations with the school authorities.

The CMO also held a meeting with the Education Officer so that the teachers could take proper care while administering the supplements. -—TNS

Dehradun, July 19
A match for deciding the third and fourth positions in the Indian Public Schools Conference (IPSC) Under-14 Boys Soccer Tournament was played at Welham Boys School in Dehradun today.

Pinegrove School, Himachal, beat LK Singhania, Rajasthan, 4-3 to grab the third place.

The final match between Birla Public School, Pilani, and Tashi Namagyal Academy, Sikkim, could not be played due to inclement weather conditions later in the day. Now, the final match would take place tomorrow. -—TNS