Musical baithak at Gurukul Viram

Dehradun, October 22

Performances by Chitrank Pant, a student GB Pant University, and Ajay Prasanna on flute and Akram on tabla were the highlights of the first ever musical baithak held at Gurukul Viram.

Chitrank, who hails from the Benaras gharna, captivated the audience with his virtuosity on tabla. Pandit Manoj Mishra of the Bhatkhande School of Music, Lucknow, is training him.

He was followed by Ajay Prasana on flute who played raag yaman, rupak taal and finally raag phari.

Another baithak will be held in November at Gurukul Viram.

Punjab joins hands with FRI for green mission

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has embarked on a green mission to double the forest cover to 15% from 7%

Dehradun Oct 14, 2012 - Punjab may be famous for its rich agriculture production in India. But very little is known about its miniscule forest cover of 7% as against 65% green cover of states like Uttarakhand.

In what is being billed as the first major afforestation initiative, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has embarked on a green mission to double the forest cover to 15% from 7%. Badal, who became the chief minister for the record fifth time last year, today formally inaugurated the Rs 1,900 crore “green Punjab mission” in the hallowed precincts of the prestigious Forest Research Institute (FRI) here. Under the project, the state government signed an MoU with the FRI here to achieve the goal 5-8 years time with the involvement of farmers and the state forest department.

For this purpose, the state government has also set up a green fund and has already raised Rs 22 crore, Badal said. From seed to trees, the MoU envisages the FRI to tackle all the forest-related problems and provide its technical expertise to farmers in the maintenance of the green cover. “FRI will take only plant a sapling but take care of for 3 to 5 years till it properly grows,” said Badal after the signing of the MoU.

Plantations of industrial timber and ornamental tree species will be carried out in this programme, Badal said. To ensure the proper price for the timber grown by farmers, timber market will be strengthened and upgraded throughout the state.

To cater the research needs of the state, a research institute will be established in Punjab with the help of FRI. “Through this green mission, the Punjab government has set an example which will be followed by other states in future,” said V K Bahuguna, Director General Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education which controls the FRI.

Lathi charge in Race Course

Dehradun, October 11
The Dehradun police today resorted to a lathi charge on VHP and Bajrang Dal workers after they forcibly tried to take possession of a house in Race Course locality of Dehradun.
According to police sources, Ravi Mittal and Mahendree Devi had a house at G 11 Race Course. Both Ravi Mittal and Mahendree Devi passed away some time back. Today, Subash Mittal, brother of deceased Ravi Mittal, who is a Deputy Director with the CBI, Delhi, reached Race Course in order to take the possession of the house. He was aghast to find a Bajrang Dal board at the house. The Bajrang Dal workers even manhandled Subhash Mittal and damaged his car, HR 26 BF 7200. Subhash Mittal reported the matter to the police.
SP, Dehradun City, Dilip Singh Kunwar, accompanied by a police force reached Race Course and tried to calm down things. But BJP MLAs Ganesh Joshi and Sahdev Pundir tried to argue from Bajrang Dal's side, whereas Congress MLA Rajkumar accompanied by other Congress workers came to Subhash Mittal's rescue.
The verbal duel between BJP and Congress workers turned into a full-scale scuffle, forcing the police to go for a lathi charge, resulting in minor injuries to a few persons.
Deputy Director, CBI, Delhi, Subash Mittal, said the Race Course house belongs to him and it was his paternal property. He also claimed possessing the papers of the property. On other side, VHP workers claimed that the deceased Ravi Mittal had donated the property to VHP.
Meanwhile, the district administration has sealed the property till further action.

IMA celebrates 80th raising day

Dehradun, October 1
The Indian Military Academy (IMA) celebrated its 80th raising day amid pomp and show at the Khetarpal auditorium here today. The IMA came into existence on October 1, 1932, with 40 Gentlemen Cadets.

The academy was formally inaugurated by Field Marshal Lord Philip Chetwode, the then Commander-in-Chief of India, on December 10, 1932, with Brig LP Collins, as the first Commandant.

Lt Gen Manvender Singh, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, Commandant, IMA, congratulated all members and their families. He said the IMA was not only a respected military institution but also abroad.

The Commandant gave away the appreciation certificate along with cash incentives to 39 civilian employees of the IMA for their sincerity and commitment towards the service in the academy.

In the past 80 years, the academy has grown from strength to strength and from 40 Gentlemen Cadets in 1932, the academy now trains around 1,900 Gentleman Cadets at any time. The academy has commissioned 52,219 Gentlemen Cadets as officers, including 1,397 Foreign Gentlemen Cadets from 30 friendly foreign countries. Besides training officers from foreign countries, the IMA has cadets exchange programmes with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.

The academy has a rich history and its alumni have excelled in all spheres of military activities. They have etched stories of their heroic valour in various battlefields throughout the world.

On the occasion, the members of the IMA also remembered and paid homage to the martyrs.

The ceremony was attended by several retired and serving officers from the state. Few of the ex-Commandants, including Lt Gen GS Rawat, Lt Gen Mathew Thomas and Lt Gen YS Tomar (retd), were also present on the occasion.

Norwegian artistes delight audience with western music

Gustavo Tavares from Brazil (left) and Anders Oien
from Norway perform at a Spicmacay programme
in Dehradun on Wednesday. 

Dehradun, September 19

In keeping with their desire to bring the artistes of western classical music closer to the young audience, Spicmacay (Uttarakhand) this time round has brought to Dehradun the Norwegian duo of Gustavo Tavares, a cellist player, and Anders Oien, a guitarist.

Both acclaimed artistes played samples of western classical music inspired by two Norwegian composers Edvard Grieg (19 century) and Kenneth Sivertsen ( 20 century).

Speaking with The Tribune at the end of their performance today, Gustavo, who is based in Oslo, said tours like these excited him as they exposed him to different cultures. “For half the year I play for Norwegian National Opera, and for the remaining period, I am free to experiment and do my own thing, which is basically music and more music,” he said.

Despite performing for an audience with limited exposure to western classical music, Gustav struck a chord with them without compromising on the vocabulary or grammar of his music. “ I do not compromise on quality of music or my own experience of music making. The standard has to be maintained at all costs,” he said.

He was accompanied by guitarist Anders Oien, who learnt music at the Norwegian Academy of Music and is a classicist in his own right.

Both agree that music had no boundaries and musical tradition of the world was based on a set of expressions that were fine-tuned. Both the artistes gave a scintillating performance at Unison World School today.

They also performed at Doon School and Summer Valley Schools.

Simultaneously, Spicmacay also organised a Bharatnatyam dance workshop by Anuradha Venkataraman, who taught the students of Govt Girls Inter College (Rajpur Road) the basics of Bharatnatyam dance.

The dancer who learnt the art under guru Saroja Vaidyanathan for 15 years and has now taken up the job herself, said that the the guru-shishya parampara had kept alive the dance and musical legacy of the country. “This Indian tradition of holding the guru in high esteem is even prevalent abroad, and this was vividly brought out even by the Norwegian artistes,” she said.

Anuradha Venkatraman also performed with the Norwegian artistes much to the delight of the audience.

DAV COLLEGE STUDENTS’ UNION ELECTIONS

ABVP's Jaguri wins post of president

Dehradun, September 13
The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad has maintained its superiority in the DAV (PG) College Students Union elections winning the prestigious post of president.

The ABVP's Mahesh Jaguri defeated NSUI candidate Mohit Rawat by a margin of 359 votes in a bi-polar contest. Mahesh Jaguri polled 2,621 votes.

For the post of general secretary, Nitin Chauhan from the lesser known Pattu Group defeated Satish Mohan Pant of the Aryan Group with a margin of 312 votes. Nitin Chauhan polled 1,898 votes whereas Satish Mohan Pant got 1,586 votes.

As for the post of vice-president, Brijmohan Singh Negi defeated the Student Federation of India's Devendra Singh Rawat by a margin of 118 votes. Saurabh Mamgain won the University Representative post defeating Deepak Bisht by a slender margin of 20 votes.

For the post of joint secretary, Kumari Suman defeated Dhirendra Singh by a big margin of 1,057 votes. Suman polled 1,871 votes. Neha Bisht was elected as treasurer. She defeated Ashish Chamoli by 49 votes. Bisht polled 1,215 votes. For the post of Student Undergraduate representative, Pankaj Singh defeated Sachin Purohit by a margin of 262 votes.

Earlier, the counting began in the DAV (PG) College at 11 am amid tight security.

The results were finally announced at 5 pm by Chief Election Officer Anil Sinha.

2nd phase of National Population Register plan to begin soon

Dehradun -Very soon the second phase of National Population Register (NPR) project would begin in Uttarakhand under which every citizen would be issued Smart Card.

This card would be the proof of that person’s citizenship and domicile. The Uttarakhand Government has released Government Order in this regard. Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain reviewed the progress of NPR project at Secretariat on Tuesday.

Jain asked the officers to link the Smart Card with Public Distribution System and other Government projects. A database being prepared under NPR could be utilised in other government projects also. the database would be first of its kind which would cover all the citizens of the State and it being bio-metrics its authenticity would also be more.

The database would include not only the photograph of the person but also impression of fingerprints and pupil. A directives had been given to complete NPR projects in one year time. In the meeting, it was revealed that 19, 98, 000 houses were covered in the first phase of NPR. In the second phase, the Enumerators would visit every house.

In all 150 houses had been placed in one block and a camp would be organized to take bio-metrics data. In Uttarakhand the phase would begin from Dehradun Nagar Nigam area for which Central Public Sector Undertaking is selecting the firms to carry out the work. Register General of India would visit Uttarakhand to take stock of the NPR process between 11 and 14 September, 2012.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Census DS Gabrayal, Director Census Snehlata Agrawal, Staff Officer to Chief Secretary MC Joshi and other senior officers.