Night landing at Jolly Grant Airport

Dehradun, March 26
The night landing system has begun functioning at the Jolly Grant Airport, paving the way for the landing of the Kingfisher aircraft.

“The Kingfisher landed it’s aircraft amid the Night Landing System (NLS) and the Instrument Landing System (ILS) has been made fully operational,” said PC Sharma, Principal Secretary and Director Uttarakhand Civil Aviation. It took more than two years to get the ILS system going at the Jolly Grant Airport, near Rishikesh. As a result, now flights could land at night.

The delay had dented the credibility of the state government that was keen to increase air connectivity in the state.

Furqan Ahmad appointed parliamentary secy

Dehradun, March 26
With an aim to placate the Muslim community, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today appointed Furqan Ahmed, the lone Muslim Congress legislator from Piran Kaliyar of Haridwar district, as parliamentary secretary.

Vijay Bahuguna administered the oath of office and secrecy to Furqan Ahmed at Vidhan Sabha here. The move is seen as a move of the state government to appease the Muslim community that felt disappointed and betrayed following the denial of ministerial berth to its lone Muslim legislator.

Harish Rawat, Union Minister of Agriculture, Food Processing and Parliamentary Affairs, who represents the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat having a sizeable Muslim community, had been pleading for the adjustment of Furqan Ahmed. He was also present at the oath taking ceremony of Furqan Ahmed.  

1,800 students take part in IIT-R annual festival

Dehradun, March 26
A three-day annual festival, Cognizance, concluded at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

The festival had the representation of almost 1,800 students from all over the country where over 160 events were held in the last three days. At one of the events yesterday, IITR alumnus Saurabh Awasthi, working at HSBC Bank in Bangalore, organised an open forum discussion under the banner of his voluntary group, the Zero Hour, discussed “Education in India, concern and way forward”.

The response of the students was amazing as they put forward their questions to penalists on burning issues such as the RTE and the RTI and their implementation. The penalists included Sanjay Pandey, Assistant Professor, IIT-Kanpur and Magsaysay Award winner who stressed on the need of having common school system along with the concept of introducing neighbourhood school so that the parents didn’t have to think twice to send their children far as there would be schools at every three kilometres. Also present in the discussion were Dr GS Rajwar, Deputy Director, Higher Education, Uttarakhand, I L Bansal, Professor at Aravali Institute of Management, Jodhpur, and Dr S Ray, Professor at IIT Roorkee.

During the concluding ceremony, Director, Airport Authorities of India, V Soma Sundram said innovation was a process which ensured development. Sundram also talked about Gagan - the Indian satellite-based augmentation system and its benefit.

At the end, he gave away mementoes to organisers of the “Cognizance 2012”. 

ABVP delegation meets Director over rampant commercialisation of education

Dehradun, March 26
In protest against the commercialisation of education, a delegation of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad met Director (Education) CS Gwal here today.

Members of the delegation submitted a memorandum to Gwal seeking his intervention in stopping the sale of books and stationery in public schools across the city.

“Students are being forced to purchase books and uniform from shops situated on the premises of public schools,” said Anshul Chawla, an ABVP worker.

Gwal has given an assurance to them that action would be taken in this regard.

They also demanded that the annual fee hike should be examined by the Director, the entrance test at the primary level should be scrapped and the admission fee be charged only once. 

Tibetans in Mussoorie protest Chinese PM's visit to India

Members of the Tibetan community take out a protest march in Mussoorie on Monday.

Mussoorie, March 26
Tibetans held a rally in Mussoorie today in protest against the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Hu Zin Tao to Delhi. They demanded freedom from the autocratic Chinese regime.

The rally began from Happy Valley, passed through Library Bazaar, Mall Road and Kulri Bazaar before culminating at Gandhi Chowk. The community members were carrying placards reading "Hu Zin Tao go back", "China stop oppression against Tibetan community".

The president of the Regional Tibetan Women's Association, Mussoorie, Kalsang Dolma, with tears in her eyes, said China was bent upon crushing the peaceful movement for freedom of Tibet through violent means. It was continuing with its repressive policy against the Tibetans much to the disgust of the community living in exile world over.

She demanded that China should "give them back their country". She also appealed to India and the international community to support their just cause in the United Nations.

As soon as the news about a Tibetan protester attempting self-immolation in New Delhi reached Mussoorie the local administration became alert fearing the repeat of a similar incident. However, the Tibetans here clarified that no member of the community would indulge in such an act in Mussoorie.

Minority panel has turned proactive: Habibullah

Dehradun March 26
The National Commission for Minorities may be a quasi judicial body, but recently due to its intervention in the Mecca Medina mosque blast case, relief to 22 innocent members of the minority community had been provided. They were demanding compensation for being wrongly accused in the blast case in Andhra Pradesh.

“Though the court had thrown out cases of 22 persons, after the intervention of the National Minorities Commission, the Government of Andhra Pradesh was asked to pay a compensation of Rs 3 lakh each to them,” said Wajahat Habibullah, chairman of the Minorities Commission who was in Dehradun today to meet the Gujjars living in Rajaji National Park.

Speaking with the Tribune, Habibullah said this was one of the proactive steps taken by the commission recently. “They were given compensation and the commission directed the Andhra Pradesh Government to issue character certificates to around 74 youth who were illegally detained or picked up by the police in the course of undertaking investigation in the mosque case,” apprised Wajahat Habibullah who was also the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

He said the character certificates giving clean chit to the youth could be useful during the course of interviews, in case they applied for various jobs in private firms.

Similar activism by the Minorities Commission in the case pertaining to Niaz Bibi and Baan Mia, the victims of Gujarat riots who were demanding proper rehabilitation, is also being shown by the National Commission for Minorities.

“In this case, neither courts, the government nor the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) had managed to provide succor to the victims. They were demanding return to their village in order to lead a life of dignity and respect. The case is under investigation and we will be holding a hearing soon,” said Habibullah.

Similarly, the commission has also taken cognizance of the poor implementation of the scholarship scheme for the students of the minority community in Gujarat. “We have sought time with Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has agreed a meeting on March 30, stressed Habibullah.

Further, the Chairman said in order to make the police minorities community-sensitive, the commission has recommended setting up of minority cells at the office of the Director General (Police). “More often, it is the police that is left wanting while handling riot cases. Much can be done if the police is sensitive and defuses the situation before it escalates,” stressed Habibullah. 

Students display models on teaching aids

 

Dehradun, March 24
BEd students of DAV PG College displayed their projects on ‘Teaching learning aid’ in the department of education here today. A large number of students from different colleges visited the exhibition.

The BEd students of first, second and third years presented the projects, based on the academic curriculum, through models, paintings, charts, crafts and origami.

The students had transformed the entire classroom where the exhibition with an array of innovative and modern-study material was held. The creativeness of the students was appreciated by all.