THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADTUESDAY, JUNE 20, 20174 TIMES CITY

Tripada EducationTrust will be cele-brating its 50th BalRathyatra, the day

its foundation was laid on thepious day of ‘AshadhSudBeej’in the year 1968.

The Bal Rathyatra, 2017-18,an epitome of an illuminativeconclave blended with sanc-tity and cultural manifes-tations will be demon-strated on June 25, Sun-day. This megastreet festival willbe taken out bythe students, fa-cilitators and em-ployees of Tripa-da Parivar show-casing the gloriousmoments of its 50 years ofjourney in the field of educa-tion and towards the serviceto mankind.

The students and facilita-tors will divulge the contri-butions of Tripada towardsthe country in its best possi-ble contour, integrating sub-tle flavors through tableaus,skits, dance-forms, posters,banners, placards carried outon trucks, camel carts, trac-tors etc. A well-coordinatedmass drills, acrobatic feats,martial arts are sure to ex-hilarate and thrill, demon-strating a magnificent spec-tacle of unity and oneness.

Tripada Group of Schoolslocated in Ahmedabad, Vi-ramgham and Gandhinagarwill also display various ac-tivities depicting the strengthof our nation with an aim toawaken every soul fortifyinga positive ambience amongour fellow beings.

Undoubtedly, this is anamalgamation of pietyfor Lord Jagannath, hiselder brother Balab-

hadra and sister Sub-hadra , along withcelebrating learningin diverse forms, de-veloping educationthat can transformlives and communi-

ties, creating con-scious citizens, who are sen-sitive to multifaceted issuesand connect with the worldaround them. The celebrationbegins on June 24, Saturday,with spiritual procession ofMosadu from the Campus ofTripada International Schoolto its premier institution, Tri-pada High School.

The 50th Balarathyatrawill be a veritable visual treatbut for those who are away,thousands of well-wishers,alumni’s will witness theevent through its live telecastonline, which will cover everyaspect of this mega proces-sion.

Tripada’s SwarnimBAL RATHYATRA

Ahmedabad: A video of acar chasing an Asiatic lioncub outside the sanctuary li-mits, probably in Amreli dis-trict, has gone viral. The oc-cupants of the car, who speakGujarati, chase the cub till itescapes from its tormentors.

On Monday, the video wasposted on a Facebook groupcalled Gujarat Forest, whichis run by an NGO. The chaseincensed wildlife lovers. Ra-vi Raj, who administers thegroup, said: “I wanted tobring the video to the noticeof officials so that action istaken.” A senior officer ofthe forest department saidthat in the absence of nightvigil and patrolling, such il-legal shows are rampant. Hesaid that the cub faced therisk of being run over.

The officer, who has ana-lyzed the video, said: “It ap-pears that the car was mo-ving at a speed of around 35-40 kmph and the cub was ma-de to run at a greater speed.”The officer said that the vehi-

cle chased the cub for nearly45 seconds.

A former principal chiefconservator of forests, C NPandey, said: “Chasing lionsis an offence under the Wild-life Protection Act. I have notseen the video but if peopleare chasing the cub, then ac-tion must be taken againstthem.”

Ram Kumar, the additio-nal principal chief conser-vator of forests (wildlife), sa-id: “We have sent the video toall senior officers and theDCF in Gir and have askedthem to identify the area andthe people.” Action will be ta-ken when the accused arecaught, he said.

Chief conservator of fo-rests A P Singh said, “We ha-ve ordered an inquiry. Thedepartment is also ascertai-ning the location where the

video was shot.” He said thatsince Gujarati is heard, it isclear that the video was shotin Saurashtra.

Last year, Ravindra Jade-ja, a cricketer who plays forIndia, had posted photog-raphs on the social media inwhich he is seen standing ne-ar lions. The forest depart-ment had announced thenthat it would take up a massi-ve awareness campaign toprevent such occurrences.Nothing much has been achi-eved since then.

Wildlife LoversOutraged,

Hunt On ForOffenders

Cub chased by car; video goes viral

Himanshu.Kaushik@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad: The forestdepartment detained a ve-terinary doctor from Raj-kot and two teachers alongwith 10 others who were il-legally moving around theGir forest and watching anillegal lion show in Juna-gadh district.

The 13 people were deta-ined and each person wereasked to Rs 2,000each as penaltyfor the crime onSunday night.

The forest of-ficials are alsolooking at thepossibility ofinvolvementof the localpeople for ar-ranging thelion show inJamudivalabeat of Deva-liya Range.

A senior forest officialsaid that the 13 people fromRajkot had stayed at a farmhouse and got the locationof the lion from the local lo-wer staff. This has raisedthe suspicion of involve-

ment of a local staff or a lo-cal resident from the area.

On Sunday, the groupwas spotted and caught bythe staff when they weremoving around in the fo-rest area, looking out forlions.

The officer said that itwas possible that the groupwas returning after seeingthe lion show.

The group was allo-wed to go af-

ter payingRs 26,000fine. Fo-rest offici-als saidsuch ille-gal activi-tes are bo-und to in-creasenow thatthe lionsafari inSasan

Gir is closed for monsoonfrom June 15 to October 15.Chief conservator of fo-rest, Junagadh (wildlife),AP Singh confirmed thecrime and said that all thegroup members were edu-cated people.

Chasing protected animalsand then posting videos of

the act on social media is cruel,insensitive, and punishableunder forest laws. Suchinstances expose theconnivance of forestdepartment employees withlocal villagers who conductillegal wildlife shows. Thegovernment should monitorsocial media for such instances,appeal to the public forinformation, and identify theareas where illegal shows takeplace. Offenders can be nabbedonly when vigilance is diligent.The forest department, whichhas a full-fledged wildlife crimecell, should also involve citizensin the campaign to raiseawareness against illegalshows.

Times View

Ahmedabad: This summer, yo-ung researchers studying socialjustice will hone their knowled-ge at a programme at the IndianInstitute of Technology-Gand-hinagar (IIT-Gn). The instituteand the University of Saskatche-wan, Canada, have organized aSummer Institute on ‘Social Jus-tice: Practice and Research’from June 19 to June 30.

The programme has been de-signed for PhD students, post-doctoral students, junior facultyat colleges and universities, pro-gramme and research staff ofthink-tanks, NGOs, and govern-ment officials.

A group of nine researchersfrom the University of Saskat-chewan and one from the Uni-versity of Ottawa, also in Cana-da, along with IIT-Gn facultymembers, will organize the ses-sions.

An IIT-Gn faculty member,Professor Ambika Aiyadurai,who is the coordinator of theprogramme said, “The two-we-ek residential programme re-flects the principles of IIT-Gnand the University of Saskatche-wan with respect to giving backto community as an integralpart of academic, and social andmoral responsibilities.”

Around 40 people from 28universities, institutes, and or-ganizations across the countryare taking part in the program-me. The programme will haveover 20 speakers and keynotespeeches from the chief executi-ve officer at Aga Khan RuralSupport Programme, ApoorvaOza; and director and professorof economics at the Center forDevelopment Alternatives inChennai, Professor Indira Hir-way.

IIT-Gn holdssummer

institute onsocial justice

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: After having fo-rayed into Uttar Pradesh thro-ugh its member Banas Dairy,Gujarat Co-operative MilkMarketing Federation(GCMMF), the marketer ofAmul brand of products, is lo-oking at replicating the Amulmodel on a wider scale in Indi-a’s largest milk producing sta-te. The cooperative federationplans to form 5,000 village coo-perative societies in UP to en-hance its milk procurement inthe state.

“We are already collecting3 lakh litres per day (LPD) ofmilk from 1,500 village coope-rative societies in seven dis-tricts of UP. Now, our plan is toincrease the number of villa-ge cooperative societies to5,000 and scale up milk collec-tion in the state,” said R S Sod-hi, managing director,GCMMF.

“To start with, we willcommence milk procurementdirectly from farmers in Var-anasi and Gorakhpur dis-tricts in the next two months.Later on, the network will beexpanded to other districts,”

he added. Popularly known asBanas Dairy, the BanaskanthaDistrict Co-operative MilkProducers Union Limited(BDCMPUL), one of the 18member unions of GCMMF,operates milk processingplants at Lucknow and Kan-pur (with 5 lakh LPD capacityeach). The dairy intends to in-crease its milk procurementover the next three years.

According to ShankarChaudhary, chairman, BanasDairy and Gujarat’s ministerof state for health and familywelfare, the GCMMF memberdairy plans to increase itsmilk procurement in UP to 20-21lakh LPD by 2020-21.

Farmers in UP receivedRs300 crore for the milk theysupplied and the payout wouldincrease to Rs3,500 crore when20-21lakh LPD is achieved.

The move has come soon

after top officials of GCMMF,along with Banas Dairy chair-man Chaudhary, met UP chiefminister Yogi Adityanath,who visited Banas dairy’sLucknow plant on Saturday.Remunerative prices of milkto farmers in UP and areaswhere Amul can help the statewere among issues discussedduring the meeting, said sour-ces.

UP government officialshad also paid a visit to Amulheadquarters in Anand some-time back to study the coope-rative model.

Despite being the largestmilk producing state, UttarPradesh does not have a ro-bust co-operative structure inthe dairy industry. Out of thetotal 8 crore LPD of milk pro-duced in UP, a meagre 3 lakhLPD is collected by Amul andanother 3 lakh LPD by a localcooperative, Pradeshik Co-operative Dairy Federation(PCDF), also known as Parag.

Amul is also open to offe-ring its expertise to PCDF. “IfPCDF wants any expertise orknowledge in forming coope-ratives or running plants ormarketing, we will be able tohelp them,” Sodhi said.

Amul to form 5,000milk co-ops in UP

Aims To Collect 20 Lakh Litres Of Milk Per Day By 2020

Ahmedabad:A senior citizenfrom Gandhinagar, Bhaskar-rai Mulshankar Vaidh, ex-emplifies how Indians don’theed the appeal made by thePrime Minister, Narendra Mo-di, to give up the co-oking gas subsidy.

Vaidhspent Rs 810to ensurethat he gota refundof Rs127.46, thesum that thegovernmentdid not payhim. He su-ed the local gasagency and fought a legal batt-le for one year, to claim the Rs127.46 subsidy on the purchaseof a gas cylinder. Vaidh filed acomplaint before the Consu-mer Dispute Redressal Forumof Gandhinagar district lastyear, against Hardik GasAgency. He complained that hedid not receive the subsidy forgas for the month of July 2016.He argued that the petroleum

company’s decision — not togive him the subsidy for himnot linking his Aadhaar card—was to be implemented inSeptember 2016. Before this de-adline, there was a procedureto be followed to avail of thesubsidy in the absence of an

Aadhaar card linkage. Hehad followed the procedurebut the sum was still not depo-sited in his bank account.Theold man, who has trouble hea-ring and seeing, and couldcommunicate with the courtonly with great difficulty, re-quested the consumer court toorder the gas agency to payhim Rs 200 for causing harass-ment, Rs 300 for his attendingthe hearings, Rs 200 for phone

calls and photocopies he had tomake, Rs 110 for the postal or-der besides the subsidy of Rs127.46. The gas agency appea-red and argued the case outand submitted that due to oldage of the complainant, theagency’s employees had

volunteered to comp-lete the proce-

dure for himto avail thesubsidywithoutan Aad-haar card.

The consu-mer forum

concludedthat theagency did

not forwardthe form to the con-

cerned authority. Instead ofdragging the case further bygetting into the technicalities,the gas agency should pay thesum to the complainant andsettle the issue after looking atthe age of the litigant. Apartfrom the Rs 937 sought by theold man, the consumer courtasked the gas agency to payhim Rs 450 extra towards liti-gation costs, court said.

Man spends `̀810 toclaim `̀127.46 gas subsidy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Amid allega-tions that the government isbending laws to make it easyfor industrialists to acquireland, Gujarat high court hastold the state government notto forget that “welfare of thepeople is the supreme law”,and advised it on how “publicnecessity is greater than pri-vate”.

Justice J B Pardiwala pul-led up the state governmentfor allowing a private compa-ny to retain possession of ahuge parcel of land though itremained unutilized forlong.

“Why this charity of a hu-ge government largesse to anindividual?” asked the court.

Prior to that, the court po-inted out the huge number ofpeople who lack shelter inthis country. “They have tobrave the scorching heat inthe summer, torrential rainsduring monsoon, and bitingcold in winter,” the court sa-id.

Without mincing words,Justice Pardiwala said, “Letme remind the authoritiesconcerned of the two max-ims ‘salus populi est supre-me lex’ which means, ‘thewelfare of the people is thesupreme law’ and ‘necessitaspublica major est quam pri-vata’, which means ‘publicnecessity is greater than pri-vate’.”

The case involved Navy-ug Industry, which was allot-ted over 53,000 square metresof land in 1962 near Patantown. As the city expanded,the land was covered by the

city survey and a portion ofthe plot was vested with thegovernment authority. Theindustry, which was woundup in 2001, was permitted tosell the land on conditionthat it would not claim anot-her parcel of land in lieu ofthe plot.

Meanwhile, Gujarat StateRoad Transport Corporation(GSRTC) needed a plot to bu-ild a depot and a pick-up busstand. It was allotted 15,300square metres from the landforfeited from the companyafter it breached the condi-tion of allotment.

The company moved theHC claiming a stake in theland that was allotted toGSRTC.

After hearing the case,the HC observed that the go-vernment had taken the mat-ter “very lightly and with nosense of responsibility”.

Rejecting the company’sclaim to the land, the courtsaid, “At least, it could be saidthat the government land isbeing used for public purpo-se, rather than allotting sucha huge parcel of land to an in-dividual who has defaulted,or rather breached, the con-dition of allotment.”

Ahmedabad: A dalit organi-zation on Monday presented amemorandum to Gujarat go-vernor, O P Kohli, through Bo-tad district collector, SujeetKumar, against state educa-tion minister BhupendrasinhChudasama and social welfa-re and justice minister Atma-ram Parmar for participatingin an event promoting exor-cism and superstition.

Chudasama and Parmarhad felicitated some 500 ‘bhu-

vas’ — exorcists or witchdoc-tors — in Parmar’s constitu-ency, Gadhada in Botad dis-trict on June 11. According tothe invitation card, the eventwas organised by the localBJP unit with Parmar’s nameas invitee, at a temple in Gad-hada town.

The memorandum fromthe Dalit Hit Rakshak Samitiwas also sent to Prime Mini-ster Narendra Modi and Guja-rat chief minister Vijay Rupa-

ni. It says, “Atmaram Parmar,the social justice and empo-werment minister, holds theresponsibility of ensuringrights of socially deprived pe-ople and the state educationminister, BhupendrasinhChudasama, holds the respon-sibility to encourage studentstowards science and technolo-gy. However, two ministersconducted a shameful act byinviting witchdoctors to a din-ner and felicitating them.” TNN

Dalits demand action against ministers

Ahmedabad: Political violenceand trouble is upsetting plans oftourists from Gujarat headed toDarjeeling. Because of the roadblockades, tour operators are can-celling bookings or diverting tou-rists to Sikkim, as an alternativedestination.

Protesters in Darjeeling onMonday blocked National High-way 31A at some places. The situa-tion is likely to rema-in tense for the nextthree days, say touroperators who havecancelled bookings and arrivalsto Darjeeling till Thursday.

“National Highway NH-10 (oldNH-31) has been blocked due to un-rest in Darjeeling. We don’t haveother options but to cancel all ar-rivals till Thursday this week, forclients travelling to Sikkim andDarjeeling,” said Deepak Gupta,director of a tour company in Dar-jeeling that handles bookings tonortheastern destinations“Owing to this, travel to Phunt-sholing (Bhutan border) has alsobeen affected,” Gupta said .

Tour operators in Gujarat ha-ve changed itineraries at the lastminute, so that holiday plans of to-urists are not disturbed. “We’vetried to defer dates for most pas-

sengers. However, for those whoare less flexible on dates or havealready arrived in Bagdogra, we-’ve made a slight change to itine-raries and diverted tourists toSikkim,” said Manoj Shah, presi-dent, Tour operators and TravelAgents Association of Gujarat(TAG).

At present, Darjeeling is fa-cing a near-total shutdown andthe situation is not expected to im-prove in the next two or three da-ys. Due to this, sightseeing and

other touristactivities havebeen stopped.“All flights are

operational. For tourists who we-re set to begin their return jour-ney, we have ensured that they re-ach the airport safely,” said AnujPathak, secretary, TAG.

Considering last-minute deve-lopments and the unrest, tour ope-rators from the city have collabo-rated with hoteliers in Sikkimand Darjeeling and ensured thattourists get a 100% refund for boo-kings for cancellations.

“We are constantly in talkswith the tourism department he-re and have ensured that touristswho have cancelled bookings get acomplete refund,” said RoshanRaj Shrestha, vice president, Sik-kim Hotels and Restaurants Asso-ciation.

Tourists from Gujaratdiverted to Sikkim

Niyati.Parikh@timesgroup.com

As southwest monsoon is yet to cover the state,Ahmedabad continued to face sweltering heatwith maximum temperature reaching 40.5°C onMonday, which was 2.2 degrees above the nor-mal. The minimum temperature was 28.3°C, 1.1degree above the normal. Humidity level rangedbetween 66% and 39% on Monday, said IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD).

Govt yet to appoint members of highereducation council: The members of highereducation council are yet to be appointed by thestate government even after the notification ofthe Gujarat State Higher Education Council Bill,2016, was made in May to create a centralizedsystem for governing institutions of higherlearning. Gujarat governor, O P Kohli had givenhis nod to the bill in February.

CITY DIGEST

A delegation of Muslim leaders visited JagannathTemple on Monday and presented mahant Dilipdasjia memento depicting the Sidi Saiyyad jali. Thedelegation wished the 140th Rath Yatra success andinvited the mahant to an iftar on June 21

City records 40.5°C

Yogesh Chawda

Public welfare issupreme law: HC

reminds govtTIMES NEWS NETWORK

The court asked why a privatecompany was allowed to retain ahuge parcel of government land

Bharat Yagnik & Kalpesh Damor TNN

13 held for lurkingin lion habitat

Siddhartha

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

DARJEELING UNREST