US team installs four water chlorinators in two villages

American team members interact with residents of
 Matli village in Uttarkashi district.

Dehradun, October 15
A team from the USA has installed four water chlorinators in disaster-hit Matli and Dilsoar villages, ensuring the availability of purified water to nearly 200 families.

The Himalayee Paryavaran Shiksha Sansthan (HPSS), a Uttarkashi-based voluntary organisation, hosted five American volunteers at its Matli, Uttarkashi campus.

Suresh Bhai, founder and chairperson of the HPSS and an activist of the Save the River Campaign, said, “This project represents a unique opportunity to partner with our global family members and introduce a new water purifying technology to Uttarakhand. We see enormous potential for this in rural India.”

The five American volunteers, namely Tina Ward-Pugh, Joe Jacobi, Lynn Smith, Robin Brothers and Suetta Albin, are associated with a non-profit organisation namely WaterStep, which has its headquarters in Louisville, USA.

WaterStep specialises in installing water chlorinators, giving training in hand-pump repair, providing disaster relief services and teaching health and hygiene practices. Their projects operate in over 25 countries, including Bihar, Meghalaya, Manipur, Assam, Odisha and West Bengal in India.The HPSS and WaterStep were brought together by Margaret Weidner, Fulbright-Nehru student researcher, who spent the last year conducting a research on water management in Garhwal.

Weidner says, “This partnership between the HPSS and WaterStep embodies the aim of the Fulbright-Nehru scholarship to promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding. Through my research, I have the chance to learn from villagers living in Garhwal and this partnership means that they will have access to a technology that can improve their quality of life.”

The water chlorinator, M-100, has been designed by WaterStep engineer Lynn Smith and its production was managed by Joe Jacobi, both of whom led the Matli and Dilsoar installations.

The M-100 is easy to operate, uses local material and is highly durable. “Using table salt and a 12-volt car battery, people are able to purify as much water as they require, up to 40,000 l per day with one machine," he says.

“Both the HPSS and WaterStep look forward to expanding the use of the technology throughout Uttarkashi and hope to promote this technology with local and regional government officials”, said Suresh Bhai.

Animal sacrifice stops in temples during Navratras in the Kumaon region

Pithoragarh, October 15
The traditional ritual of animal sacrifice in various temples of local deities in the Kumaon region during Navratras was stopped this year due to the efforts of animal right activists and initiatives shown by temple committees at various places.

According to the information received from Almora district, devotees at temples in Chitai Golu, Jharkar Sam, Mashan and Kailka worshiped the deities with coconut and flowers.

“It was possible with relentless efforts of administration in awakening the villagers about the courts orders and demand of the time, besides the initiatives shown by respective temple committees,” said Pankah Upadhaya, SDM of Almora.

According to priest of Chitai temple, the temple used to attract dozens of animal sacrifices during the Dashera and Navratras since the time the temples was established, but the tradition broke this year, with no animal sacrifice during the festival.

“The police also guarded the temple for 10 days continuously to revert any attempt of animal sacrifice during Navratras,” said the temple priest Hari Vinod pant.

“This year the people came with bells coconuts, and flags to the temple rather than animals for sacrifice,” said pant.

At the Jhakar Sam temple near Almora town, the age-old tradition of animal sacrifice was stopped this year after the local administration succeeded in persuading the temple committee for not resorting to animal sacrifice.

“Instead we told the villagers, they should come with flowers, fruits, clothes and incenses to please the deity, our efforts were helped by the administrative officers and resulted into no animal sacrifice year this year,” said Devi Dutt Pandey, priest of Sam temple at Jhakarsam temple, which had been famous for animal sacrifice traditions in Navaratras.

The news of no animal sacrifice also poured from other places of the region, including Kali temple at Gangolihat in pithoragarh and Kanda in Bageswar districts as the administration kept a strong vigil during the festival.

In brief

CM lays stone of women's hostel 

Dehradun, October 13
Uttarakhand Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of the Indira Gandhi Working Women’s hostel in Dehradun that would be constructed at a cost of Rs 862 crore.

He said the state government planed to open such hostels in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts also. He reminded that women have played an important role in creation of Uttarakhand. 

Phailin hits 90 lakh people; 23 dead, lakhs of hom...

The NRI Post - Largest NRI News Portal: Phailin hits 90 lakh people; 23 dead, lakhs of hom...: 9 lakh evacuated from path of Cyclone Phailin Tropical Cyclone Phailin in the Bay of Bengal. Gopalpur - Cyclone 'Phailin' on...

Punjab News Weekly: PGI's Sangrur centre to focus on liver, kidney diseases

SANGRUR -  The satellite centre of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), whose foundation stone would be ...

Tripti Dhyani is students’ council president in MKP College

Dehradun, August 30
Tripti Dhyani of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) was elected president of the students’ council in MKP PG College today. The party won all 12 posts in the election.
Tripti secured 366 votes and defeated her nearest rival Karishma Rawat, who contested the election as an Independent candidate. Pooja Gusain of the Vikas group finished third.
The other ABVP candidates, who were elected office-bearers of the students’ council, are: vice president- Sangeeta Sajwan; university representative-Kiran Chauhan; treasurer-Chander Kapoor; and joint secretary- Aasma Ansari. Chander Kapoor was elected treasurer unopposed.
The elected executive committee members are Neha Thapa, Shilpa, Anamika Verma, Garima Chawla, Priyanjali Sharma and Simran Kaur (all belonging to the ABVP).

Meanwhile, the election saw mere 30 per cent of polling in the morning. There were total 2,500 registered voters in MKP PG College. The voting began at 10 am and went on till 1 pm. The counting started after an hour and the results were declared late evening. The NSUI did not field any candidate in the election in MKP PG College though it was supporting many candidates belonging to other groups.

Students’ scuffle

Students owing allegiance to two groups entered into a scuffle during the polls at MKP PG College here today. The police had to intervene to defuse the situation.

Tension erupted when Karishma, an independent candidate for the post of president, was asking her supporters to stand ahead in the queue for voting. This made the supporters of Vikas group angry and they got involved in small brawl. Khushby Raturi of Vikas group registered a complaint against Karishma with the authorities. 

Dev Sanskriti University inks pact with South Korean varsity

Haridwar, August 9

Dev Sanskriti University, Haridwar, has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korean Dongguk University to collaborate in subjects of spirituality and religion. The memorandum was signed in the presence of the visiting Chancellor of Dongguk University Dr Chongsik Kim and Indian University counterpart Dr Chinmay Pandey, here today at the Dev Sanskriti University. 

As per the memorandum, both the universities will collaborate in religion and spiritualism and try to bring younger generation closer to these two aspects. Both the educational institutions will also hold seminars and carry out various research based programs for the students. Dr Chinmay Pandya said with this agreement, the principles and ideas of Shantikunj founder Pt Shri Ram Sharma Acharya will propagate in Korea as foreign countries are now understanding that the physical prosperity is one thing and intellectual-spiritual prosperity is more important.

While Dr Kimsaid their University will translate some of the works of Pt Shri Ram Sharma Acharya in Korean language soon, so that the Koreans have an easy access to the vast spiritual knowledge of the Shantikunj founder.

Initially, the works related with youth and women empowerment will be translated in the Korean language and later on Vedic scriptures would also be translated.

The Korean delegation also inspected the Dev Sanskriti University and met the students. They also praised the discipline, social work and working of the university.

Dr Kim told TNS that Dongguk University is a prestigious University of South Korea. It has campuses in Seoul, Gyeongju City, Gyeongsang and Los Angeles, USA.

Accompanied by a 18 member delegation from South Korea, Dr Kim also observed meditation at the university mediation centre ‘Devatma Himalaya’, where replicas of Shri Badri Nath, Shri Kedar Nath, Gangotri and Yamunotri have been put up. Korean delegation also met Shantikunj spiritual head Shail Jiji and had talks on various spiritual-religious aspects.