Dehradun, July 28
The inter-ministerial group constituted by the union Department of Science and Technology (DST) will submit its status report within six months after mapping the extent of damage to the natural wealth in the recent Kedarnath rain disaster in Uttarakhand.

Presiding over a meeting linked to the preparation for mapping, Dr T. Ramasami, Secretary, DST, said the inter-ministerial group had been given a set of tasks which include mapping the entire Himalayan region, with priority to the char dham region of Uttarakhand. “We will start with the char dham area followed by the entire Uttarakhand and ultimately the whole of the Himalayan region,” Dr Ramasami said.

He said after the submission of the status report within six months, the final assessment report would be prepared within a year which would be followed by an action plan.

Taking part in the deliberations, Padma Shri Anil Joshi, from HESCO, stressed on ensuring a compulsory community participation in the works of policy making for the Himalayas. He said the Himalayas have always suffered and disasters have been an integral part of the lives of the Himalayan people. He said sensitivities of the local people must be given due importance.

The Director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Prof Anil Gupta, said the Centre was serious about the Uttarakhand rain disaster. He said the disaster had affected the common man which was also a matter of concern for the scientists. He said the mapping should be done in a reasonable time frame of between six and 12 months.

Padma Bhushan Chandi Prasad Bhatt and former foreign secretary Shyam Saran also spoke on the occasion. More than 57 experts from various national disaster management agencies, departments, universities, institutions and non-government organisations held a detailed discussion on the work of mapping and damage assessment.

Jaipur, July 28
Spiritual head of Ajmer Dargah, Zainul Abedin Ali Khan today requested political and non-political groups in the country to avoid holding public Roza iftar parties in view of the recent Uttarakhand tragedy.

Uttarakhand disaster which claimed lives of countless pilgrims was a big tragedy of the country so public iftar parties should be avoided. "Lakhs of rupees are spent on such public Iftar parties and this year this amount should be used to help the victims and their rehabilitation," Khan said in a statement here. Iftar parties are held in the holy month of Ramzan. "This will be the service of humanity which is the message of Islam," the Dargah Dewan said.— PTI 

Haridwar, July 28
With the registration process of Lord Shiva devotees coming to fetch the holy Ganga jal, known as Kanwariyas, taking shape, a local social outfit has started an awareness drive among the Kanwariyas.

By staging nukkad nataks and skits in ‘Gandhigiri’ style, the activists are urging the Kanwariyas to register themselves in the interest of their safety.

The Teerth Maryada Raksha Samiti, which had taken out demonstrations, urging the Uttarakhand Government and district mela administration to ensure the registration for this Shravan Kanwar pilgrimage, is now generating awareness about the registration among the Kanwariayas.

This drive is being carried at various Ganga ghats, including Subash Ghat, Birla Ghat and Alaknanda Ghat, Valmiki Chowk, railway station, post office intersection, Sabzi Mandi and other areas where the pilgrims throng.

Samiti chief Sanjay Chopra said they were trying to assist the mela administration in making sure that the maximum number of Kanwariyas got enrolled so as to to get the exact data of the number and names of Lord Shiva devotees coming to Haridwar.

In the wake of the flash floods and natural fury in Uttarakhand last month, when a large number of char dham and Hemkunt Sahib pilgrims had died or were caught stranded for days, the issue of the registration of pilgrims had gained momentum. It was felt that had the pilgrims been registered, it would have aided in knowing their number and their addresses. The samiti had carried out a movement to make sure that the registration of Kanwariyas is started in Uttarakhand for this annual fair. Since around 2 crore Kanwariyas had come to Uttarakhand to fetch Ganga jal last year, the state government accepted the registration proposal with its announcement from this year. The Dharamshal Raksha Samiti founder, Pt Chandra Prakash Sharma, appreciated the awareness drive and said that their members, too, were cooperating in it. He said they were also urging the Kanwariyas returning home after fetching Ganga water to inform the incoming Kanwariyas to get themselves registered at various counters set up in their respective states and Haridwar district, as it was for their own well-being.

District Magistrate Nidhi Pandey lauded this initiative. She said without cooperation from the local people and organisations, the Kanwar fair could not be smoothly and peacefully completed. She said the district administration and mela police were trying to make sure that all Kanwariyas got themselves registered.

She said as the registration had been introduced for the first time, the Kanwariyas did not know about the process and the awareness drive would help all concerned.

Mussoorie, July 28
Chaotic scenes marred the monthly Municipal Council meeting held here yesterday.

Several ward members expressed their dissatisfaction with the modalities prepared for door-to-door waste collection under the solid waste management project funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB).

They also opposed the MC's decision to assign the task of garbage collection to two NGOs despite the availability of manpower with the council. Ward members, especially Sashi Rawat, Vinod Semwal and Jasvir Kaur, questioned the reasoning behind assigning the work to NGOs.

They said the MC's decision to pay Rs 3,000 to NGOs' workers, who would be otherwise charging additional fee for collecting garbage from each household in the wards assigned to them, was wrong.

"If NGOs will take the assistance of MC workers for the job of door-to-door garbage collection for which it would be collecting a monthly fee from each household, then there is no need of giving Rs 3,000 to them, which was earlier being given to swachkars (garbage collectors) appointed by the mohalla swachta committees of the town," they said.

The ward members also raised an objection to the MC's decision to provide council vehicles funded by the ADB to NGOs for garbage collection.

They said when the NGOs would be charging additional monthly fee as user charges from each household, then there was no reason to provide the NGOs with council vehicles.

They also flayed the decision to abandon mohalla swachkar samitis formed under the project in the town.

MC president Manmohan Singh Mall pacified the ward members saying they had decided take the services of NGOs for initial six months only on an experimental basis. If the NGOs failed to deliver, an agreement signed with them in this regard would be terminated.

Mall clarified that the mohalla swachkar samitis had been abandoned as workers were not functioning properly, resulting in frequent complaints from the households.

The issue of certain health workers remaining away from work after marking their attendance was also brought to the notice of the MC president. Mall directed the officials concern to take stern action against the defaulters.

The issue of auctioning a second-hand Bolero by some council employees and selling it to the relative of a council members for Rs 61,000 also cropped up at the meeting.

Ward member Virendar Panwar said if the auction would have been done publicly, the council could have earned much more revenue.

However, refuting the claims, Mall said due process had been followed after taking the advice of the RTO office and no anomalies had been recorded in the auctioning process.

Mall also raised the issue of 44 files lying in the CBI office, which CBI sleuths had taken along with them to investigate corruption charges during the regime of the previous council. He said due to the missing files, the work of the council was suffering adversely.

Mall said he would request the CBI to return the files to the council, if it was not investigating the matter. He directed the council lawyer to present a report on the matter at the next meeting.

The issue of increasing the honorarium and duration of service of doctors deployed at the dispensaries run by the council in Barlowganj and Library Bazaar was also discussed.

Besides this, 44 more proposals were cleared by the MC at the meeting.

Mussoorie, July 28
Firebrand national general secretary of the BJP Uma Bharti said the recent remarks of Congress leaders that a meal can be had for Rs 5 and Rs 12, showed the feudal mindset of the Congress.

Uma sopke to mediapersons on the sidelines of her visit to Mussoorie yesterday.

She said the unprecedented price rise had broken the back of the common man but the Congress had remained indifferent to the sufferings of the people and had been behaving in a feudal manner.

Uma Bharti added that she would not reveal the election plans of the BJP as at present, the party was focused on providing a healing touch to the people affected by the natural disaster that occurred last month.

Dehradun, July 28
Kasiga School has won the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Memorial Football tournament played at Jogiwala Dehradun.

In the final match today, Kasiga beat Dehradun Football Academy (DFA) 4-3 after the match was decided by a tie breaker in favour of Kasiga.

The two teams were levelled one each at the end of stipulated time.

Palden, Ngwang, Supaysh, Aditya scored goals for Kasiga while Divyanshu, Vikram Rana and Vikram Kumar scored goals for DFA.

Chief Guest Congress leader Anand Bahuguna handed over the trophies to the winners.

Best midfielder award was given to Nawang from Kasiga School, best forward award to Shivam also from Kasiga School and best stopper award was given to DFA’s Siddharth Thapa.

Suppayas Khow got best player of the tournament award.

In the semi final matches played yesterday, Kasiga and Dehradun Football Academy emerged victorious in their respective matches.

In the first semi final match, Kasiga beat Gayatri Vidhyapith Shantikunj School, Haridwar, by 3-0.

Subhash scored the first goal in 32nd minute while Aditya scored second and third goal in 44th and 48th minutes.

In the second semi final match, Dehradun Football Academy beat Marshall School by 2-0. Shubham Limbu scored both the goals.