MC prepares for state foundation day

Dehradun, October 22 : The Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) will be taking active part in Uttarakhand Foundation Day celebrations this year.

The corporation has charted out three-day proceedings, which was approved at the Dehradun Municipal Corporation Board meeting held yesterday for the foundation day falling on November 9. The DMC intends to organise a national-level cultural festival in Dehradun as part of promotion of the cultural arts of the state aimed to provide an identity to the DMC in the national cultural scenario.

Apart from it, the board meeting at length discussed issues linked to money spent on purchase of tools and equipment used for civic sanitation work since the assumption of office by the present DMC board. Presiding over the meet, Mayor Vinod Chamoli pulled up DMC health officials for being complacent in undertaking works ordered in the earlier board meetings.

He further directed the mukhya nagar adhikari to ensure that the physical verification of information provided under the RTI regarding purchases made of tools and materials used for civic sanitation work was conducted within 15 days and its report presented to the board.

Regarding the anomalies in resources available compared to their use for civic sanitation by DMC staff, the Mayor said there was a need to improve the working of divisional supervisors who had remained notorious for providing misinformation to either the DMC administration or councillors, compromising on work and not making proper use of available human and mechanical resources.

Responding to allegations of lack of parity in the amount of funds spent on development works in different wards, Mayor Vinod Chamoli said the previous board had set incorrect practices of treating the fund available to the DMC board. "Such practices would not be allowed in the present board as the public money would not be allowed to become an object of misuse," he said.

On problems of stray dogs and simians, the Mayor informed them that as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the stray dogs could neither be killed by the municipal body nor at once be relocated to another site. On information provided by doctors in the Doon Hospital, the Mayor said out of the total cases of dog-biting humans recorded in hospital, 60 per cent were bitten by pet dogs, whereas mere 40 per cent were bitten by stray dogs.

Uttarakhand bag gold, 2 bronze medals

Dehradun, October 22 : The Uttarakhand team won one gold and two bronze medals at the 20th National Kayaking and Canoeing Championship under way at Bhimtal, Nainital, here today.

Results: In 1000 C4 junior men: P Sharma, Kuldeep Kumar, Virendra Singh and Vipin won gold for Uttarakhand team. Ashutosh, Praveen Singh, Abhay Singh and N Khan won silver for Madhya Pradesh and SS Rajesh, N Soni, S Ishwar and S Singh won bronze.

In 1000 K2 en: Santi Swarup and A.Y Singh gave an outstanding performance for Service Sports Control Board (SSCB) team to win gold, SSCB team's Amit Kumar and Manoj Singh came up with silver and Manmohan and Dilip Singh was placed at third sport to win a bronze.

In 1000 K1 junior: Manipur team emerged winner to win gold, ASCB team was placed second with silver medal and Uttarakhand was third with bronze.

In 1000 K4: SSCB clinched gold and silver medal, whereas Madhya Pradesh team settled for bronze.

In 1000 C2: Andhra Pradesh won gold, SSCB team won silver and Madhya Pradesh team won bronze.

In 1000 C1 junior: ASSB gave an outstanding performance to win gold, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh

In 1000 K4 junior: ASSB gave a gold winning performance, Kerala team was placed at second spot and Madhya Pradesh was third place.

In 1000 C4 men: SSCB grabbed gold, ASSB had to settle for silver and Madhya Pradesh for bronze.

In 1000 K1 men: SSCB won gold, ASSB won silver and Andhra Pradesh bronze

In 1000 C2 junior: Andhra Pradesh emerged winner with gold, ASSB silver medal and Uttarakhand team settled for bronze.

In 1000 C1 men: Andhra Pradesh won gold, Madhya Pradesh won silver and SSCB won bronze.

Most students on leave, usual buzz missing

Roorkee, October 22 :  There have been no regular activities on the IIT campus over the past week as most of the students have left for their homes in view of Diwali.

Even most of the faculty members have gone to their homes to celebrate the festival of lights. With the institute going into the exam mode immediately after the festive season, the campus is bereft of its usual buzz.

However, a few students chose not to visit their homes this Diwali and instead celebrated the festival with their friends and teachers on the campus. Chander Tomqil, an MTech student, said his parents were abroad this year and so he decided to stay back on the campus and rather had a great time exploding crackers in the company of his classmates.

For those who had been longing to join their families to enjoy the festivities but could not go due to certain reasons, the campus Diwali was a pleasant experience. They got ample time to spend with their friends, said students.

Training programme

A one-week training programme on "Ground Water Resources Evaluation in Hard Rock Areas" is being organised by the Department of Hydrology at the Continuing Education Centre of the IIT this week.

A total of 15 officers of the Ground Water Department, Andhra Pradesh, have been attending this training programme, which focuses on the methods for assessment of groundwater resources in the hard rock areas of India.

Experts found that more than two thirds area of the country comprised hard crystalline rocks. As such, many of the groundwater experts found it difficult to locate new sources of groundwater and to estimate the total groundwater resources available within these rocks.

For the courses being undertaken during the training, several faculty members have been drawn from the Department of Earth Sciences, Hydrology and Civil Engineering of the IIT-Roorkee as well as from the National Institute of Hydrology.

Another training programme for officers of the Ground Water Department, Andhra Pradesh, is to be organised on "Stochastic Processing of High Frequency Piezometer Data" in the second week of the next month.

Dr DC Singhal of the Department of Hydrology is coordinating these training programmes.  Courtesy : The Tribune