THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADWEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 20154 TIMES CITY

ZIPPING ACROSS SABARMATI TOI

A woman enjoys a zip-line ride at Sabarmati Riverfont

The Gujarat Sales Tax Bar As-sociation (GSTBA) on Tuesdayelected its new office bearersand managing committeemembers for the year 2015-16.Tejas Shah was elected aspresident while Nishant Shuklawas elected as vice president.Varis Isani will be the new sec-retary while Rupesh Shah willtake over as joint secretary.Sugam Shah will be the trea-surer for the next term.

High court directs airporttaxi owners to respond tocontract termination: Guj-arat high court on Tuesdayasked the city airport author-ity to grant an opportunity tothe taxi owners’ association topresent their stand on the de-cision to terminate the con-tract to run pre-paid taxis. Thecontract was terminated bythe airport authority allegedlyon the ground that the pre-paid taxis were charging hefty

amount to passengers afterthey bided for the tenderpromising to pay royalty ofmore than Rs 400 on each tripto the airport authority. Theassociation is asked to submitits reply within a week’s time,sources said.

HC stay on auction of pvtfirm land: Gujarat high courton Tuesday ordered a statusquo on the sale of a hugechunk of industrial land in Va-dodara’s GIDC with regard tothe Petrofils Co-operative Ltd’sland. After the industry wentinto liquidation, the land wasto be auctioned to recover Rs755 crore dues, but the govern-ment authorities objected tosale of the land claiming own-ership on the ground that ithad originally acquired theland by paying the amount.When the division bench earli-er rejected the government’sview and ordered the officialsnot to create hindrance in auc-tion, the government has fileda review petition. The HC hasissued notice and stalled theauction process.

CITY DIGEST

A woman weavs a bamboo basket near Thaltej

Tejas Shah newpresident of SalesTax Bar Association

Gandhinagar: The state government isworking on a new mining policy for mostminerals in the state. For the first time,new norms for mining on private landwill be included in the policy along withthose for mining on government land.Further, instead of auctioning themmanually, every possible mining site willbe notified in advance and put online forauction. The state government alsoplans to check mining theft using satel-lite technology.

Saurabh Patel, in-charge minister forindustry and mines department, saidthat under the new policy, all the mineralsites (under control of the state) will beauctioned online. “We have started on-line auction of sand. Similar auctionsfor all other minerals will be startedsoon,” said the minister.

He further said that the state govern-ment is making changes in the existingmining rules in light of new central leg-islation on the subject.

“New regulatory framework for

mining on private land will be intro-duced along with rules for governmentland. Value addition after mining will begiven priority. Mining sites will be iden-tified and blocks will put online for auc-tion,” Patel said.

The state government has also initi-ated a new project — geochemical map-ping of Gujarat — to identify sites withmineral resources in the state. This is be-ing done in collaboration with Geologi-cal Survey of India (GSI) and will help inlong term planning for managing state's

mineral resources. It will also help in in-dustrial and other zoning processes, saidsources.

The state government has alreadycompleted geochemical mapping ofKutch where it surveyed 26,800 sq km ar-ea and took 6,000 samples.

Now it has started work in Jamnagar,Kheda, Valsad, Bharuch, Surat, Navsariand Bhavnagar districts. A total of 2,482sq km of land in the districts just men-tioned has been surveyed so far, thesources said.

New Policy Will Include Rules For Both Private And Govt Land

Gujarat govt plans onlineauction of all mining sites

Ahmedabad: Indian Instituteof Technology, Gandhinagar(IIT-Gn) is organizing‘Tech2Impact’ — a three day ac-celerator program — to bringentrepreneurs with engineer-ing, design, manufacturingand business backgrounds to-gether to create entrepreneu-rial ventures that can generateimpact from the inventions.

The program will begin onJuly 24 and registration will beopen till June 30. Advisor of In-tellectual Property and Entre-preneurship at IIT-Gn, HiranVedam said, “Participants willgo through various sessions in-cluding icebreaking andmatch-making to enable teamformation, seminars on vari-ous topics related to technolo-gy commercialization andwork with various mentors ontheir commercializationplans.” TNN

Tech2Impactat IIT-Gn

from July 24

Ahmedabad:Children of Marida villagenear Nadiad lovingly call him Abdul Cha-cha, a retired school teacher who is alsoknown for his teaching and the life lessonshe gives to his students.

In a rare gesture, this teacher, AbdulVora, constructed goddess Saraswati tem-ple within the village school premises forthe children to be inspired. “I am a teacherfirst and everything else later. For me, mychildren are my inspiration and theirs isgoddess Saraswati. So the temple,” saysVora, who had served as a teacher in theHindu-dominated village for nearly threedecades.

Vora put a large amount of his savingsin the construction of the temple. “Thetemple took five years to be constructed.Many villagers also contributed whateverthey could,’’ says Vora.

It does not end there. Vora even taughtchildren how to perform pooja at the tem-ple. “The temple project was initiated by

Abdul Saheb and later residents of the vil-lage joined in,” says a teacher at the school.

Vora was inspired by the Saraswatitemple in Kathlal while he was training ina PTC college there. “I had always wishedthat I build one temple for the village too,”says Vora.

Vora was born in Andhari village near

Nadiad and his family was among thethree Muslim families there.

“I have always got respect from everyindividual in this village. I served as ateacher here and would like to serve itspeople,” says Vora. Vora’s eldest son SajidVora was shot dead by unidentified goonsin Nadiad town recently.

Retired Muslim teacher helpsbuild Saraswati temple in school

Ahmedabad: The three juve-nile white rumped vulturesthat were rescued by the Jiva-daya trust were released backin the wild. They were res-cued from Kadi wildlife forestrange on April 27th and 28ththis year.

According to volunteersthey were suffering from de-hydration and were broughtto the trust for treatment. Thehigh temperature recorded inApril and May lead to dehy-dration of the birds.

These vultures were pro-vided proper treatment at thespecial Avaiary and were giv-en physiotherapy and alsoflight practice. Finally onTuesday they were releasedback into their natural hab-itat, a place where there weremore than 70 Vultures of thesame species thriving.

3 rescued vulturesreleased in the wild

Kapil.Dave@timesgroup.com

Abdul Vora and the goddess Saraswati temple in Marida village near Nadiad

Ahmedabad: The city’sdate with the pleasantweather continued on Tues-day, thanks to a stormy pat-tern over the Arabian Sea.The cloudy weather gaveresidents the much-awaitedrespite after days of searingheat.

Several isolated areas al-so received bouts of showeraround 4.30pm, intensifyingmass anticipation for a big-ger spell.

People, who had beengasping under torturousheat for the past few weeks,made the most of the cloudyweather by venturing out oftheir homes. Throughoutthe day, a huge rush was wit-nessed on Sabarmati river-front and at Kankaria andVastrapur lakes.

Adding to the joy of theperfect weather is the pre-diction that cloudy condi-tion will be stable for thenext few days. However, the

mercury is expected to onceagain cross the 40-degreemark and settle at 41 de-grees.

On Tuesday, the city reg-istered a slight rise in maxi-mum temperature at 39 de-grees celsius, a jump of onedegree from Monday.

However, it was twonotches below the average.The minimum settled at 29degrees, a rise of two notch-es. High humidity that oscil-lated between 65% and 61%had people in sweat.

M Mohanty, deputy di-rector, IMD, Gujarat, said:“Tuesday’s shower was a re-sult of the cyclone Ashobaa.Wednesday is also expected

west of Mumbai, 606kmwest-southwest of Vera-val, 570km east-southeastof Sur (Oman) and 730kmeast-southeast of Muscat(Oman).

The system will inten-sify further into a severecyclonic storm, move ini-tially northwestwardsduring next 24 hours andwest-northwestwards to-wards Oman coast during

subsequent 24 hours. It willcross Oman coast as a cy-clonic storm between Surand Mina Sultan Qaboos(Muscat) near latitude 23.00N and longitude 59.00 Earound the night of June11.”

to witness rain or thunder-showers towards evening ornight.”

According to weather of-ficials, “The cyclonic stormlay centred about 860km

Cloudy sky keeps city cool

Showers lashed some areas of the city on Tuesday. However, the mercury is expected to once againcross the 40-degree mark and settle at 41 degrees in the coming days

TOI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Yogesh Chawda

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

On Tuesday Maximum Temprature Was 39° Celsius

Ahmedabad:The health department teamof Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation inthe last five days destroyed over 1,200 kg ofnoodles of various brands including Mag-gi. On Tuesday the AMC health departmentdisposed 17 kg of Maggi and also carried outraids on 511 units in the city that were foundto be selling noodles. AMC officials said thata fine of Rs 12,550 was also recovered fromthe 511 shops found to be selling noodles.

The Gujarat government on June 4 hadjoined the army and some other state gov-ernments in banning the popular noodlesbrand, Maggi. The state government hadimposed a one-month ban on the storageand sale of Maggi after tests revealed that itcontained lead and monosodium glutamate(MSG) above permissible limits. Nestle, thecompany which manufactures Maggi noo-dles, has been asked to withdraw all itsstocks from the state’s markets.

According to the team of the health de-

partment, the AMC has begun the drive todispose of noodles stock from the city sinceJune 5 and since then the team has disposedoff nearly 1,200 kg of noodles. The team onday one had disposed off over 825 kg of noo-dles.

On Tuesday, of the 17.3 kg disposed off,the AMC team found 3.3 kg of noodles fromthe shops and establishments in the area ofJodhpur, Satellite, Ghatlodia, Kali, Thaltejamong others. The AMC team raided 74 gro-cery shops and malls.

AMC team destroys 1,200kg noodles

Ahmedabad: Several partsof north Gujarat andSaurashtra were lashed byrains and strong winds onTuesday under the influenceof cyclone "Ashobaa" thathas drifted away from thestate coast. Rajkotwitnessed a suddendownpour in the evening,leaving several roadswaterlogged . TNN

Rains lash north Gujarat

HARBINGER OF RAINS: Peacockgets set for monsoon

White rumped vultures were rescued from Kadi wildlife forestrange in April this year

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

For waiting Ceptians, souvenir is GodotT

he wait for a souvenir seems to be endless for 39 meritorious students, even more than four months after Cept University’s ninth convocation. In a policy shift, Cept had awarded certifi-cates to the distinguished students, instead of gold medals, on

February 7. The administration had reportedly told the students that an excellence certificate was equivalent to a gold medal. However, Cept registrar Anita Hiranandani had told TOI that they were getting the souvenirs designed and they would ship them to the students. When contacted, Cept administration had a same story, “Souvenirs are being made by a visiting faculty, Walter D’souza.” But a student said: “A gold medal has deep-rooted value in an education system, so we’re a bit dis-appointed. It’s an infinite wait.”

NID grads return as faculty

NID prefers its own graduates to outsid-ers when it comes to appointing faculty

members. This is evident from the fact that the country’s premier design institute has in-ducted several of its graduates. “Why should we ignore the surplus bright talent on the campus? Right from Pravin-sinh Solanki and Dhiman

Sen Gupta to Prahlad Gopinath and Mayank Lunkar, all are our prod-ucts,” NID director Pradyumna Vyas said. Some other alumni inducted into NID are: Niju Dubey, Ajay Ku-mar Tiwari, Amrish Panik, Rishi Singhal, Shrinkhla Aren, Arti Srivas-tav, Swagata Naidu, Ashok Panchal, Jiten Rajput and Krishna Patel. Prof Romani Jaitley, who has retired, was also an NID product.

IIT-Gn campus-warming on July 1

IIT-Gn is set to shift to its 400 acre permanent cam-pus on the banks of the Sabarmati River at Palaj

village in Gandhinagar. “We’ll move to the new campus on July 1 and will try to start some classes from mid-July,” said institute director Prof Sudhir Jain. He said the building would be one of the swankiest campuses of the country with an array of luxury amenities. The original move was sched-uled for mid-December, but the project was delayed. For the past few years, IIT-Gn has been functioning from a temporary facility at Vishwakarma Engi-neering College in Chandkheda.

55% BRTS users are office-goers

Majority of BRTS users are office-goers, says a survey conducted by Cept students. The univer-

sity, which spearheaded the planning and implemen-tation of the BRTS, carried out a survey of 100 BRTS users with the Nehrunagar station as the bench-mark. Guided by their faculty Ashima Banker, stu-dents Ajitesh Bansal and Deepu Asheibam found that 55% of people use BRTS to reach work, 27% to reach school or college, and rest 13% for personal uses like shopping.

Headgear for `50

Convocation is one of the most important events in every student’s life and it is incomplete without

the traditional graduate cap. Since Nift does not have a culture of academic caps, graduating students had to rent them from a shop in Nehrunagar. “A convoca-tion is synonymous with graduate caps... So, a group of 40 students hired graduate headgears for Rs 50 each,” said a faculty member.

Beautiful faces pumped up the oomph factor at the recent convocation of Nift, Gandhinagar. The event also saw some students ditching the traditional graduate attire