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Children cross makeshift bridge over Mandakini to reach school
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Sulabh promises Rs
2,000 to village widows
Agarwal Mahasabha assures to rebuild Parodi village
Pharmacists’ body gives Rs 2.28 lakh for relief work
Uttarakhand tea to be part of Kolkata trade auction
Political consensus must to save hill ecology: Saran
Irregular supply of LPG cylinders alleged
Roadways staff union hails GO on its demands
Eco-Task Force jawans, students plant 300 saplings
Brilliant performance by actors in play based on Premchand's story
13 doctors promoted
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Children cross makeshift bridge over Mandakini to reach school
Dehradun, July 31 They are risking their lives to cross the Mandakini through a makeshift bridge for the sake of education. Normally, students of middle classes and above trek to Behri town in the Kedar valley where a Government Inter College is located, but after the natural disaster Temeriya village road was damaged they have to take a longer route to reach the school. “We are happy that the school did not wash away in flash floods. Even if it meant traversing a longer route, we ensured that our children took reach the school. All was well until fresh rains in mid-July when the only connecting road too caved in following landslides,” said Sudershan Semwal, a resident of Temeriya village. With the lone village route damaged, Temeriya village remained cut off for 10 days, forcing the children to bunk school. Restless parents then protested in front of the local administration at Ukhimath, demanding that a link be provided to their village. After mulling over possible solutions, the villagers decided to seek help from the local administration for completing bridge lying. This bridge was incomplete for the past one year. “The villagers were adamant and they forced the local administration to provide tin sheets that could be placed on the bridge to enable the children to cross the Mandakini and walk to their school,” said Mukesh Semwal of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist). For the past two days, the determined children guided by their equally determined parents have crossed the bridge unmindful of the Mandakini to reach their school. “It is a risky proposition but we had to somehow send our children to school. If this bridge had been completed in time, the relief operations to the Kedar valley from Ukhimath too would have been a smooth affair,” said Raghubir Singh Bisht, a villager. |
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Political consensus must for preserving hill ecology: Saran
Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of “Deliberations on Kedarnath Tragedy” held at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, Saran said all efforts to ensure sustenance of the Himalayan ecology finally boiled down to politics. “We need a political consensus and of course willpower to take tough decisions on the issue of sustaining the Himalayan ecology,” he said. Saran said if a particular political party decides not to construct a road in a particular fragile zone, the other might oppose the decision solely due to political considerations. “Thus a political consensus on the issues of sustainable ecological development is very much needed,” he pointed out. He suggested that it would be better if the Chief Ministers of the Himalayan states in the country come together on such issues rather than making ecologically sensitive issues a political football. He appealed to scientists not to ignore from political issues when it comes to ecology. Sarna referred to pilgrimage tourism in Uttarakhand and said it should be promoted in a way that people were benefited from it. “Only then they will have a stake in saving ecology,” he said. He referred to the format of eco-tourism undertaken in Nepal. “As an Indian Ambassador to Nepal, I found that in a tourist place like Annapurna, homestead tourism had been promoted in a big way rather than big hotels and motels. This directly benefits the locals, who too understand the importance of conservation of the environment as it has a direct bearing on their livelihood,” he added. The former Foreign Secretary said even the problem of pollution caused due to polythene could be effectively tackled with the support of local entrepreneurs. He added bringing in thousands of people without adequate infrastructure support was not a good idea. Saran, who also held a coveted position as Prime Minister’s special envoy on climate change from 2007 to 2010, said the National Action Plan on Climate Change in 2008 had stressed on sustaining the Himalayan ecology. He added it was the aim of the action plan to come up with guidelines for sustainable ecological development. On the Kedarnath catastrophe, he said emphasis must be on to create livelihood opportunities for the victims. This was important to give them a long-lasting solace and solution. He added what happened in Uttarakhand was not just the state’s tragedy but a challenge to the entire nation. He backed the creation of buffer zones in religions places in fragile ecological zones so that the movement of vehicles near these shrines could be banned. He also underlined the need for creation of a knowledge pool to go to the causes of the Kedarnath type of disaster and come up with effective damage mitigation measures for future. He added experts from various platforms should come together and work to get better results. WHAT TO DO
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Sulabh promises Rs
2,000 to village widows
Dehradun, July 31 The Sulabh International Organisation is going to organise a programme at its Indiranagar Colony office to hand over Rs 2,000 cheques to Deoli village widows. Thirty-two men of Deoli village in Rudraprayag died in the recent rain disaster. Addressing a press conference here, Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Panchayat’s President Usha Negi said it was disgraceful that Sulabh International has asked the rain disaster victim widows from Deoli village to come to Dehradun for accepting a cheque of Rs 2,000 as assistance. “This makes no sense. How can a woman who has lost her husband just a month ago come to Dehradun braving all difficulties of the damaged roads and the bridges to take a meager assistance of Rs 2000?”, questioned Usha Negi She said even if the Sulabh International Organisation was so eager to hand over Rs 2,000 to widows, it could have gone to Rudraprayag rather than organising a programme in Dehradun and inviting top political leaders of the state. She said it was also strange that while the state government has not yet declared the missing as dead, the Sulabh International was already considering 32 missing men of Rudraprayag’s Deoli village as dead. She said the Akhil Bhartiya Mahila Panchayat will also hold a protest if the Sulabh International Organisation goes ahead with the programme. |
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Agarwal Mahasabha assures to rebuild Parodi village
Mussoorie, July 31 The mahasabha members inspected the damage caused in Parodi village and discussed with the affected villagers the ways to rebuild it. They also distributed relief material among the villagers and assured them that the mahasabha would work out ways to help them. Many members suggested that they should start with building tin sheds for the villagers so that they could save themselves from continuous rains. Manmohan Mall also assured the villagers that the government would assist in rehabilitating those villagers who had lost their houses and fields last month. Besides president of the Mahasabha Dhanprakash Agarwal, RC Garg, AK Garg, Sunil Goyal, Prem Goyal, Rakesh Kumar and others visited the village. |
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Pharmacists’ body gives Rs 2.28 lakh for relief work
Dehradun, July 31 The association members met the minister at the Vidhan Sabha and presented the draft. The Dehradun branch of the association presented Rs 1 lakh, Pithoragarh Rs 50,000 and the Almora district association Rs 78,000. Lauding the efforts of the association members, Negi said everyone should extend help in the relief and rehabilitation work in the state. Those who met the minister include president of the association BS Kaluda, general secretary CS Mahra and NP Bhatt and BS Payal.
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Uttarakhand tea to be part of Kolkata trade auction
Pithoragarh, July 31 “A three member delegation was sent by the tea board to know about the auction process at the Kolkata tea trade association and sign an agreement with the board,” said Bhanu Pandey, a member of the delegation. "The Kolkata tea board association has agreed to help the Uttarakhand tea to avail international market. They were also happy with the samples that were produced by the delegation," said Pandey. According to the Uttarakhand tea board director, Akshat Gupta, the board has decided to take special care for the production, packing, quality and marketability of the Uttarakhand tea. According to the board sources, more than 2.50 lakh kg of tea leaves will be produced by the board this year, out of which 25 kg tea will be produced in the factory of the Uttarakhand tea board itself. “We have decided to send a consignment of 15,000 kg of Uttarakhand produced bio-tea to the Kolkata tea trade association this year between August and September,” said Gupta. |
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Political consensus must to save hill ecology: Saran
Dehradun, July 31 Saran said if a particular political party decides not to construct a road in a particular fragile zone, the other might oppose the decision solely due to political considerations. “Thus a political consensus on the issues of sustainable ecological development is very much needed,” he pointed out. He suggested that it would be better if the Chief Ministers of the Himalayan states in the country come together on such issues rather than making ecologically sensitive issues a political football. He appealed to scientists not to ignore from political issues when it comes to ecology. Sarna referred to pilgrimage tourism in Uttarakhand and said it should be promoted in a way that people were benefited from it. “Only then they will have a stake in saving ecology,” he said. The former Foreign Secretary said even the problem of pollution caused due to polythene could be effectively tackled with the support of local entrepreneurs. Bringing in thousands of people without adequate infrastructure support was not a good idea, he added.
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Irregular supply of LPG cylinders alleged
Dehradun, July 31 She further added the residents comprising women and old people mostly start standing in the queue from 4 in the morning waiting for the cylinders. She said despite directions given to the gas agency operators to provide home delivery of cylinders for which they charged fare, they were harassing the consumers of Rajiv Nagar Colony. She said due to this the public of the area had to commute 2 km to get the cylinders, which exposed the irregularities in the functioning of the gas agency. Sundaram assured her of conducting an enquiry into the matter. |
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Roadways staff union hails GO on its demands
Dehradun, July 31 Convener Ravi Pachauri said after several requests by employees, a GO in this regard was released , but was never followed. Since then, the employees' union had been fighting a battle in support of its demands and had also proposed to launch an indefinite strike from July 30. However, after talks with Congress leader Saket Bahuguna, which were facilitated by senior Congress leader Ashok Verma, their issues were resolved. He said they had been given an assurance that the GO order related to their demands would be implemented within a week. — TNS |
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Eco-Task Force jawans, students plant 300 saplings
Mussoorie, July 31 The jawans of the Eco-Task force in a change of tactics focused on planting soil-binding species like didonia and creepers to check landslides and soil erosion, which were the major causes of the natural disaster last month. The Commanding Officer of the force, Col Kuljit Singh Jaggi, was the chief guest on the occasion. He along with more than 200 school students also planted a sapling. Col Jaggi said he was glad about knowledge, aptitude and the positive attitude shown by the students and the villagers towards the mission of the Eco-task Force of greening the environment for the future generation. He also thanked the villagers and the dignitaries for their support in the plantation drive. The students of Government Inter College presented cultural programmes relating to the environment. The audience appreciated the performances of the students. Project Officer Capt SS Negi coordinated the programme. He said the Eco-Task Force was committed to greening the area with as many trees as possible during the project. |
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Brilliant performance by actors in play based on Premchand's story
Dehradun, July 31 His protagonists are ordinary people and Premchand articulated their concerns and problems ably in his novels and stories. Shradhha took the stage as the narrator and introduced the main characters of the play. The story orbits around an old woman, Kaki, who is at the fag-end of her life and has yearning for delicious food as her other senses have dimmed with age and taste is the only sense she can indulge in. She has bequeathed her all to her nephew, Budhiram, but gets ill-treated and not fed on time or well enough. Kaki, like an ignored and distressed child, resorts to howling loudly when anything is not to her liking or she is not offered eatables brought from market. Laadli is Budhiram's daughter and emotionally close to Kaki and shares food with her. The second scene shows Budhiram's son's tilak ceremony. Shabnam, who played Kaki, portrayed the restlessness and despair competently, evoking audience sympathy. Nandini as Roopa rendered the negative role convincingly. The last scene is the night scene when Roopa is fast asleep but Laadli, played by Zubi, is unable to sleep, knowing her Kaki is hungry. There were beautiful moments of the child's love for her Kaki that made her give up her own share to the helpless old woman. Kaki is not satiated with what Laadli gets for her and forages for the leftover nibbles on discarded plates. Roopa wakes up and is stunned at the sight and undergoes a transformation of heart. Repentant and guilty she apologises and feeds Kaki with her With her immaculate Hindi, Shraddha, as a narrator, did a splendid job, making the scene changeovers seamless. From Kaki to the shahanai players, every single participant contributed to making the play a brilliant presentation.
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13 doctors promoted
DEHRADUN: The government has announced the promotion of 13 government allopathic doctors. Their promotion was pending for the past many years. Most of the doctors have been promoted to the specialist grade.
A few weeks ago, eight doctors were promoted to medical officers (grade-I). According to the Department of Medical, Health and Family Welfare, the remaining doctors at the post of Senior Medical Officers, too would soon be promoted to the rank of Joint Directors.
— TNS
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The journey to school is never complete without a long trek for children residing in Uttarakhand hills. But after several roads washed away due to the mid-June flash floods this journey has become all the more arduous for the children of Temeriya village in the Kedar valley.
At least 12 jawans of the 127 Eco-Task Force along with students from various schools around the Thaan and Bhavan region yesterday planted more than 300 saplings under the ongoing Vanmahotsav celebrations.
Dehradun, July 31