Dehradun, 29 Jan 2005

These days, Uttaranchal is wooing Bollywood with its pristine hills and lakes as a prime film shooting location.

Recent blockbusters like “Charas”, “Kisna” and “Little Terrorist” were shot in Uttaranchal.

The state government has announced sops for the film industry to shoot there instead of spending huge amounts of money at foreign locations.

Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna called on the state Chief Narain Dutt Tewari to sound him out on the needs of the industry.

“I want a non-political relation with the state in which the common man gains. The state has several unexplored areas which could be tapped as good shooting locales. It will provide good opportunity to earn revenue for the state,” Khanna said.

Uttaranchal is one of the most beautiful and enchanting regions in the northern parts of the country. The picturesque state is also known as “Dev Bhoomi”, the Land of Gods. The holy rivers of Ganga and Yamuna, besides others run through it.

State government spokesman Naresh Nandan Prasad said a committee has been formed to look into promotional activities. “The state can definitely be promoted as a possible destination to shoot Bollywood films. Keeping this in mind, the state government has formed a state-level committee and another regional committee which will look into promotional activities,” Prasad said.

Prasad said a film city would be developed in a year’s time to provide basic facilities for printing, dubbing and editing of films.

Tourism is the mainstay of the state’s economy. Over four million tourists, both from India and abroad visit the state every year. (ANI)

News Source: http://www.newkerala.com

Gopeshwar, 28 Jan 2005

The higher reaches of the Indo-Tibet border region in Uttaranchal have received a fresh spell of heavy snowfall even as the national highway from Rishikesh to Joshmath remains blocked at several places due to landslides caused by continous rainfall.

Heavy snowfall was reported from Barahoti, Rimkhim, Kamet, Dronagiri, Malari, Bampa, Trishul, Nandadevi, Chaukhamba, Charpanikhal, Danala, Deoanga, Kuari Pass, Mana Pass, Niti Pass, all in Chamoli district.

Harshil, Rajgarhi, Barakot, Tyuni, Uttarkashi, Gangotri, and Yamunotri in Uttarkashi district also got heavy snowfall, reports reaching here said.

The district of Pithogarh and the hill stations of Nainital, Ranikhet, Landsdowne and Mussourie were also covered with a white blanket upon additional snowfall.

The Cold wave continued in the region as the lower regions received rain, bringing down temperatures considerably, and causing landslides blocking vehicular traffic on several roads and affecting power supply and telecommunications.

The national highway between Rishikesh and Joshimath was also blocked due to landslides caused by incessant rain. PTI

News Source: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com

New Delhi, 28 Jan 2005

The World Health Organisation’s regional office is providing technical assistance to Uttaranchal and areas in Maldives, Myanmar and Indonesia to assess and bridge the gap in mental health services.

“The issues of adolescent well-being, alcohol and psychosis and epilepsy are being addressed by the programme,” Dr Vijay Chandara from the WHO told reporters here today.

Under the programme, the analysis of mental health situation, followed by development of strategies would be done, he said.

Reassessment of the mental health gap would be done after two years, he said adding the programme is likely to be reflected in the Mental Health Policy that Uttaranchal Government comes out with.

The programme aims to reduce the mental health gap by 10 per cent per year in these areas, Chandra said adding the strategy was to draw patients to mental health services by training village workers in identifying the problems and assisting patients to come for help.

Dr Benedetto Saraceno, Director, Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence at WHO’s headquarter in Geneva said that mental helath servcies were inadequate in India and other parts of South Asia.

It led many people to go for unscientific restrictive care institutions in India, he said adding WHO was against such practices. PTI

News Source: http://news.newkerala.com

26 Jan 2005

Microsoft and the government of Uttaranchal are jointly working to develop and deploy an array of e-governance solutions in the state. The state’s department of information technology (DOIT) attained the status of a Strategic Microsoft Technology Partner in December 2002 for consulting, developing and executing systems integration projects on Microsoft technologies. As part of the MoU, Microsoft will set up two centres of excellence for e-governance to showcase its products and solutions, and demonstrate the inter-operability of its products with other platforms. These centres will help the state government and universities to conduct technical training sessions for government personnel.

Microsoft has also launched the first Hindi IT Lab in Dehradun to promote the use of Hindi in government workflow applications. It provided software, training to DOIT and other government employees, and undertook website development and content creation in Hindi. In addition, Microsoft will assist in the development and transfer of skills for Project Aarohi of the government; the project aims to provide IT education and training to students from the primary section to class XII, teachers and government employees. Microsoft will also provide instructors and teaching material for the ‘Train the Trainers Programme’ under which master instructors will be coached at the state’s District Institute of Education and Training. Besides, Microsoft will provide consulting resources to the government for the development and implementation of Project Haridwar which will offer services to pilgrims visiting Haridwar.

News Source: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com

UNI, Lucknow, 24 Jan 2005

The mystery of the hundreds of skeletons in the Roopkund lake has begun to unravel with a few of the DNA samples matching with those of a particular group of people living in Maharashtra.The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad director, Dr Lalji Singh, talking to UNI, said the centre had conducted studies on the DNA of 31 samples of bone and muscle taken out from a relatively well-preserved body and several skeletons found in a frozen state at Roopkund lake in Chamoli district of Uttaranchal.

“They are about 1,500 years old as per the reports of accelerated mass spectrophotometric analysis while three samples have unique mutations in the mitochondrial DNA which are not found anywhere in the world but only in a particular group of people from Maharashtra who migrated to India from outside a long time ago,” he said.

This proves that the three samples were of the people who were migrants to India, who were either on a pilgrimage in the Himalayas from Maharashtra or some migrants from outside India still living in that region, he said.

The director said since these three samples had the same mutations, they would have probably been people of the same family. His ancient DNA laboratory is the first such facility set up in the country to study old DNA samples.

The lab was studying populations of Nainital and Garhwal in Uttaranchal and in Himachal Pradesh to find out similarities in the DNA. In the meantime, a group of experts working on the project, would be sent to the snow-bound Roopkund region to collect more samples for further analysis.

The CCMB initiated the study a year ago of the DNA samples from the Roopkund — popularly known as the mystery lake or skeleton lake — after the department of biotechnology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research sanctioned the three-year project to the CCMB to find out the truth behind the hundreds of skeletons spread over the lake, situated in the Himalayas.

Dr Singh said, “There had been conjectures regarding the skeletons. Some people thought they were remains of the warriors of two kings who were killed in a battle in Roopkund.”

Some believe that they were the remains of a king’s entourage on way to a pilgrimage. They perhaps got stuck in adverse weather and perished. Another possibility was that these were devotees on way to Nanda Devi who got buried in an avalanche, he added.

A group of archaeologists, led by Dr Walimbe from Pune, was sent to Roopkund. The team collected 31 samples of bones and muscles which were used to isolate the DNA in the ancient DNA laboratory of CCMB at Hyderabad, specially set up under controlled conditions to study ancient DNA samples.

“The archaeological and anthropological findings of these samples also revealed that some of these people were very tall, over six feet in height and also possessed an extra bone in the skull joint which is rarely found in the Indian populace.”

“Besides, their skulls had holes indicating an injury before getting buried alive in snow,” he explained.

“Moreover, since some of the skeletons were of women and children, the first conjecture is ruled out. Those were in most probability pilgrims,” Dr Singh said.

He said another two samples’ analysis matched with some people living in Garhwal even as further studies on all the 31 samples were still on to find out more accurate facts.

Incidentally, the lake, situated at an altitude of 5,029 metres above the sea level in the eastern part of Chamoli district, attracted interest after some skeletons were found in the region way back in 1942 by a forest ranger.

Roopkund is situated on the Nanda Jat route to Hemkund and its depth is only about 2 metres. The area remains snow-clad throughout the year. When the snow melts for a couple of weeks in summers, the skeletons are visible and the experts go there to collect bone and muscle samples.

Dr Singh said the DNA in these skeletons was properly preserved since they were lying in such cold region and in some skeletons even the muscles were intact. Because DNA was well preserved, it has been possible to amplify and sequence complete mitochondrial DNA in eleven samples.

The CCMB had carried out forensic tests in many high-profile cases including the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Naina Sahni tandoor murder case and Swami Premananda case.

News Source: http://www.navhindtimes.com

18 Jan 2005

Police in Uttaranchal, are giving guerrilla combat training to its border units following fears that the increased violence and rebellion might spill over from neighbouring Nepal.

Last week, Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba turned up the heat on the Maoists by announcing plans to push ahead with elections they oppose and at the same time intensify a crackdown.

The Maoists have vowed to “shatter” the vote, and are thought to be planning a major attack against the government to underline their point and mark the ninth anniversary of the start of their struggle in February, according to Nepal’s army.

India knows well the risks of a failed state on its porous borders and is stepping up support for the Nepali army, as well as efforts to arrest Maoist leaders on its soil.

Hundreds of Indian solider have fanned across the dense forests, often used by the Maoists rebels to take shelter, along the state’s 240 km-long porous border with Nepal.

“The motive behind the jungle training is that the militants and Maoists carry out their training activities in jungles. By living in jungles, we are learning to cope up with the natural climate of the jungle,” said Matloob Khan, a sepoy.

SS Negi, the commandant of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) said, that the jungle training was imperative in their fight against the rebels.

“Since recent months, the Maoists are creating a lot of problems. To study their activities and work strategy, we are conducting training here,” he said.

Police officials say that Nepal’s Maoists have established links with Maoist groups in India and they aim to set up a “Compact Revolutionary Zone” throughout Nepal and northern and eastern India. (ANI)

News Source: http://www.newkerala.com