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JAMMU TUESDAY | APRIL 28, 2015 | VOL. 30 | NO. 116 | REGD. NO. : JM/JK 118/15 /17 | E-mail : [email protected] | epaper.glimpsesoffuture.in
Earthquake toll in India goes up to 72,
India ramps up relief in Nepal
New Delhi, April 27:
The death toll in India from
Saturday’s monster earthquake today
shot up to 72 even as New Delhi ramped
up relief and rescue efforts in Nepal to
provide succour to the nation devastated by the temblor. Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh informed the Lok Sabha
that the toll in the country has climbed
up to 72 with 56 deaths reported in Bihar,
12 in UP, three in West Bengal and one in
Rajasthan.
Enumerating the mammoth task
undertaken by India to mitigate the sufferings of the Nepalese people under
‘Operation Maitri’, Singh said 10 NDRF
teams are already in that country and
six more on their way. An engineering
task force and 18 medical units have also
been rushed. An Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle has also been dispatched to assess the gigantic losses suffered by the
landlocked nation. Over 2500 Indians
have been evacuated from quake-hit
Nepal so far and free visas are being given to foreigners stranded there who
want to come to India.
National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) teams, comprising about 450
trained personnel, have fanned across
News Digest
School mini-bus hijacked in
RS Pura; criminals project
themselves as ‘militants’
‘Vehicle recovered 3 km away from
school; police detain two’
Fresh tremors measuring
5.1 magnitude felt in
Bihar, WB
areas like Seetapaila, Maharajganj,
Maheshwari and Gangabhajat, about 1015 kms from the Kathmandu valley.
The force, till now, has rescued 10
people and retrieved 46 bodies from under the rubble of buildings brought
down by the quake on Saturday and a
string of aftershocks thereafter.
NDRF Director General (DG) O P
Singh, who is camping in the capital city
of Kathmandu since yesterday, said a
team of his men has also been deployed
at the Tribhuvan international airport
to assist Indian Embassy officials in the
air evacuation of stranded Indians.
“Our main priority is to go for as many
rescue operations as we can. Last night
our operations got hit as there were incessant rains and aftershocks of the
quake. But, today morning we have
started full-fledged operations as the day
is sunny and there are no rains,” Singh
said. The Centre has airdashed a team of
senior officials from ministries of
Home, Defence, External Affairs and
NDMA to coordinate with the Nepalese
authorities the rescue and relief operations. Headed by Additional Secretary
in the Home Ministry B K Prasad, the
team will also monitor the evacuation of
stranded Indians in Nepal and send a re-
New Delhi, April 27:
port to New Delhi to help it further intensify its efforts to provide assistance
to the Himalayan nation.
Calling it a “very big tragedy”,
Rajnath Singh said India stands by
Nepal and those affected in India in this
hour of crisis. He also thanked the governments of Bihar, UP and Uttarakhand
for setting up relief camps at the border
with Nepal and plying buses to evacuate
people. Experts have also been rushed to
Nepal to restore the communication net-
IB to check infiltration bids ahead of summer season
See SCHOOL on page 11
Jammu, April 27:
Jammu, April 27:
An Army jawan was killed and another wounded when a tree fell on their
vehicle on Jammu Srinagar highway
in Ramban district. Police said that a
tree uprooted and fell on an army vehicle in Ramban leading to the death of
one and injury to another. Police shifted injured to the hospital for treatment,
while the body of one soldier was
officer
in
General
Command of Udhampur based
Northern command headquarters Lt-Gen DS Hooda Monday
said that the Indian army has increased its total strength along
the line of control to check the
fresh infiltration bids ahead of
the summer season. He said the
army has also launched repair
work of the barbed wire fencing
damaged at certain places due to
large accumulation of snow
along the line of control.
Speaking to media persons
on the sidelines of a function at
Jammu railway station where
he honoured senior railway
functionary RN Meena Lt-Gen
DS Hooda said, after the Samba
and Kathua fidayeen attacks by
Pak based militant groups the
Indian army has deployed its
Srinagar’s school girl slips
into stream, dies
Srinagar, Apr 27:
An 11-year-old girl died today after
she slipped into a stream while on her
way to school in Kupwara district of
Jammu and Kashmir. Tabasum
Gulzar, a sixth standard student,
slipped into the stream at Wudar Bala
in Handwara area this morning, police
said. The girl was washed away by
strong water currents caused by heavy
rainfall across Kashmir since yesterday, the police said. The body was
See SRINAGAR on page 11
Youth dies during Army
recruitment rally in Doda
Jammu, Apr 27:
A 26-year-old youth Monday died
after he collapsed during an Army recruitment rally in Doda district, police
said. Yogeshwar Singh, collapsed while
undergoing screening test at a recruitment rally of Territorial Army (TA),
they said. He was taken to a hospital
See YOUTH on page 11
Weather
JAMMU
CYM K
Maximum :
33.1 Degree
Minimum :
23.2 Degree
KASHMIR
Maximum :
28.1 Degree
Minmum
10.6 Degree
Today`s Weather Forecast
JAMMU: RAIN/THUNDERSHOWER.MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE WILL BE AROUND 23
DEG. CEL.
Today`s Weather Forecast
SRINAGAR:RAIN/THUNDERSHOWER.MAX
IMUM TEMPERATURE WILL BE AROUND
23 DEG. CEL.
See EARTHQUAKE on page 11
hampers rescue efforts
KATHMANDU, APR 27:
Hit by severe shortage of
food, water, electricity and medicines and buffeted by fear, tens
of thousands of people are out in
the open here as quake-hit
Nepal today desperately sought
international help to tide over a
looming crisis with death toll
soaring to over 3,700.
A well-known Telugu
movie choreographer, 21-yearold Vijay, was killed in a road accident in rain and aftershock of
Panic gripped in border town RS
Pura, after three masked men armed
with knives hijacked a school mini-bus
during late night prompting security
agencies to launch massive hunt.
According to the sources, atleast three
masked men appeared at a private
See ARMY on page 11
work thrown into disarray. “We are also
helping foreigners. We have decided to
give free visas to those willing to come to
India. Immigration facilities have been
set up in this regard,” he said.
Meanwhile, both Houses of
Parliament condoled the loss of life in
the earthquake, with the Lok Sabha accepting a proposal moved by
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M
Vankaiah Naidu to donate one month’s
Fresh tremors measuring 5.1
magnitude were felt on Monday in the
northern and eastern belt of India bordering Nepal, rattling parts of Bihar
and West Bengal.
According to USGS, the 5.1 magnitude tremors hit Mirik in India at
around 18:05 hours.
The regions that were hit by
tremors are Madhupura, Madhubani,
Patna, Katiyar, Saharsa, Siliguri,
Jalpaiguri and some parts of Assam.
The aftershocks have continued
to hit the region even two days after a
massive earthquake devastated
Nepal. Saturday`s earthquake, which
measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, resulted in the deaths of over 3,200 people in Nepal, while many are still
trapped under the debris. In India, the
death toll has reached 59.
Army rushes more Nepal quake toll rises
troops along LOC above 3,700 as rain
Jammu, April 27:
Army Jawan killed, another
injured in Ramban
5 hurt in clashes
at Army recruitment
rally in Reasi
men in the second tier of security grid to assist BSF check infiltration inside the Indian territory. Similarly more troops have
been deployed along the line of
control to strengthen the counter infiltration grid across the
state. Commenting on the security situation ahead of the summer season Lt Gen Hooda said
to check fresh infiltration bids
the army has already started repair work of damaged portions
of fencing along the LoC.
Sharing latest assessment
of the intelligence agencies LtGen DS Hooda said,' at least 200250 militants were still camping
across the launching pads
across Jammu region while
around 100 militants would be
active across similar launching
pads
opposite
Kashmir
valley.The army officer said as
See ARMY on page 11
the temblor in the early hours of
today when his film unit was on
its way to Kathmandu. Seven
women from Assam were also
feared killed in the quake on
Saturday. More than 48 hours
after the 7.9 magnitude temblor
shook the Himalayan nation, injuring more than 8,000 people
and leaving thousands more
homeless, multi-nation rescue
teams, including from India,
carried out relief works. Armed
with modern equipment,
See NEPAL on page 11
Jammu, Apr 27 (PTI)
Five people including a policeman were injured in clashes
during an Army recruitment
rally in Jammu and Kashmir's
Reasi district today.
The chaos broke out during
the Territorial Army recruitment rally at Subsidiary
Training Centre (STC) in
Talwara belt of Reasi district
as aspirants rushed towards the
entrance in large numbers
while those rejected started
pushing each other on the way
out, police said.
Police resorted to mild cane
charge as the crowd clashed
with them in which five persons
including a cop suffered minor
injuries, they said, adding that
the situation was brought under control and the screening of
aspirants is underway.
The rally organised for recruitment to the posts of Soldier
General Duty, Clerks, Store
Keeper Technical (SKT),
Surveyor, Tradesmen (Chef
Community, Masalchi,
Steward, Housekeeper, Hair
Misappropriation
of Rs 45 lakh of
PNB ATMs
Court directs CB to
investigate the matter
Jammu, April 27:
Court today directed
Crime Branch to investigate
misappropriation of Rs 45
lakhs of Punjab National Bank
(PNB) ATMs. In a complaint
filed by Securitrans India Pvt.
Ltd. (SIPL) under Section
156(3) Cr. PC. Directing the respondents to investigate and
register FIR against the accused person namely Sanjay
See MIS on page 11
After decades, CRPF vacates
centaur Lakeview hotel Srinagar
Amar Singh club also to be vacated within few days: IG CRPF
Srinagar, Apr 27 (KNS):
After more than two
decades, paramilitary CRPF
forces finally vacated the Hotel
Centaur Lakeview in Srinagar.
The move has been taken on the
directions of Chief Minister
Mufti Mohmad Syeed.
Talking to Kashmir New
Service Inspector General of
CRPF K. S Bandari said that
they have vacated the Hotel
Centaur Lakeview after having
been allotted the alternate ac-
commodation by the state government. “We have vacated the
hotel and more hotels including
the Amar Singh Club would be
vacated within shortest possible
time. “ He said that CRPF has no
hindrance to vacate the hotels in
Srinagar city. “We are waiting
for Jammu and Kashmir government to arrange alternate accommodation for the forces,”
the IG added. It is to mention
here that Chief Minister, Mufti
Muhammad Sayeed had assured tourism players to make
evacuation of all hotels possible
in Srinagar city that have been
currently occupied by security
forces. Meanwhile Reliable
sources told KNS that that on the
request of the state government
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
has directed CRPF to vacate the
hotels and guest houses as soon
as possible. “ Following heavy
influx of tourists to the Valley in
June this year the state government has requested the MHA to
instruct the paramilitary CRPF
See AFTER on page 11
Dresser, Washerman and
Drivers) categories would end
on May 9.
Meanwhile, defence
spokesman said the recruitment started in the morning today and the rally was held for
the first time in the district. He
said that the stone-pelting was
started by some rejected youth.
"4,500 to 5,000 youth congregated at the rally site. A minor incident of stone-pelting by rejected
participants resulted in injuries to two civilian and one
policeman. "However, active
mediation by civil authorities
and senior Army officials
brought the situation under
control," spokesman said. The
rally is going on smoothly with
1,500 candidates having been
tested till last reports came in,
he said. "The locals of the region
are pinning high hopes on the
rally which is going to create
employment avenues in the region," he said. One aspirant of
rally, Mohd Irfan was quoted
saying," What better way to
serve nation than to join
Army." PTI AB
Islamic State chief Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi has died,
claims Radio Iran
Tehran, April 26
In what could deal a severe
jolt to the extremist organisation
Islamic State, Radio Iran has
claimed that ISIS caliph Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi has died.
According to a tweet by the
All India Radio (AIR), Baghdadi's
death claim has been made by Radio Iran. It can be noted that a Guardian report last week claimed that
Baghdadi had received serious 'life-threatening' injuries during a US-led airstrike in March and that the
strike had left him seriously wounded. The report
added that Baghdadi was no more in control of daily operations of ISIS as he had not been able to recover.
However, there were similar reports of Baghdadi being
See ISLAMIC on page 11
Highway through for
one-way despite rain
SRINAGAR, April 27:
The 300-km-long Srinagar-Jammu national highway, connecting the Valley with the rest of the country,
was still through for one-way traffic despite rain since
last night. Dozens of far flung and remote areas, including those near the Line of Control (LoC) also remained
cut off from their respective districts and tehsil headquarters due to snow. Despite moderate to heavy
overnight rain, the highway was through for one-way
traffic, a traffic police official told UNI today. He said
traffic would ply from Srinagar to Jammu and all vehicles had to cross Qazigund, the gateway of Kashmir, by
1200 hrs. However, no vehicle would be allowed from
Jammu to Srinagar. Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles,
including those carrying passenger, empty trucks and
oil tankers, also left different parts of the Valley for
Jammu this morning. The Border Roads Organisation
(BRO), responsible for the maintainance of the
See HIGHWAY on page 11
Mufti tours Srinagar, issues orders for city beautification
Conducts on-the-spot
assessment of ongoing
tourism, pilgrim and
developmental projects
rupted power supply to the historic
Mosque. The Chief Minister issued
directions to Commissioner SMC to
See MUFTI on page 11
There are less than a dozen
pol prisoners in jails: CM
SRINAGAR, APRIL 27:
In one of the most marathon
tours undertaken so far, the Chief
Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,
today criss-crossed the Srinagar city
to make on-the-spot assessment of
the ongoing work on tourism, pilgrim and developmental projects in
the summer capital. Despite heavy
downpour, the Chief Minister visited the historic Jama Masjid at
Nowhatta, Asar-i-Sharief Hazratbal,
Khanqah-e-Moula
Zainakadal,
Nehru Park, Char Chinari and Sona
Lank in Dal lake, Badam Wari in the
walled city, Idgah, Kashmir Haat,
Indoor
Stadium,
Sangarmal,
Kashmir Golf Club, Estate Quarters
at Pampore, Pantha Chowk, as well
as Amar Singh Club.
Minister for Public Works,
Floriculture, Gardens & Parks, Syed
Altaf Bukhari, Minister of State for
H&UDD and I&C, Mohammad
Ashraf Mir, MLC, Khursheed Alam,
identify land for construction of a
Community-cum-Marriage Hall
Srinagar, Apr 27:
VC Wakaf Board, Peer Mohammad
Hussain, Principal Secretary to
Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas,
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir,
Gazzanfar Hussain, IGP Kashmir,
SMJ Geelani, Director Tourism,
Kashmir, Farooq A. Shah, VC LAWDA, Sarmad Hafeez, Deputy
Commissioner, Srinagar, Farooq
Lone, VC SDA, Saleem Sheshgar,
Commissioner, SMC, Tufail Mattoo,
SSP Srinagar, Amit Kumar and
Chief Engineers of PHE, I&FC, PDD,
UEED & R&B, besides several other
senior officers accompanied the
Chief Minister.
While visiting the Jama Masjid
Complex at Nowhatta, Mufti Sayeed
went inside and around the sacred
premises. He issued instructions for
underground cabling of the electric
wires and improving the facilities at
Wazu Khana. Presently, the wires
are cluttered shabbily on the electric
poles which is affecting the ambience. He also asked the Chief
Engineer, PDD, to ensure uninter-
Jammu and Kashmir Chief
Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
today said that there were less than a
dozen political prisoners in various
jails in or outside the state. "There
are not many (political prisoners).
You just create this. They are not in
numbers. They are not even a
dozen," Sayeed told reporters here.
The Chief Minister was responding
to a question on his government's
promise of releasing political prisoners. In its Common Minimum
Program - 'Agenda for Alliance', the
PDP and BJP coalition government
had asserted that a process would be
started to release political prisoners
lodged in different jails. Referring to
the earthquake in Nepal, Sayeed
said two people from the state have
lost their life in the natural disaster
there. "According to the reports till
now, two people from the state have
lost their life. They are from Jammu.
We are in touch with the families (of
those who are missing). We are monitoring the situation," he said.
On the reports about experts
warning of a high magnitude earthquake in Kashmir, the chief minister said "God forbid, such a thing
will not happen here. Do not give a
bad omen to us. We have already
suffered due to floods (last year)".
Sayeed said the previous government in the state had left a deficit of
Rs 9000 crore and it was a challenge
to confront it. "They have left a
deficit of around Rs 9000 crore and
there was no proper implementation of any scheme. But I do not want
to dig the past... this is a challenge in
front of me and I will take on it with
full confidence," he said. The chief
minister was here to inspect the site
for a multi-storey parking facility.
CYM K
CYMK
I Feel Honoured
Over Arjuna Award
Recommendation:
Rohit
News on Page 9
CYMK
Glimpses of Future
Judicial Supervision of
Graft Cases Hindering
Decision Making: Arun
Jaitley
News on Page 7
Glimpses of Future
Farmer kills self in Ajmer,
4th in past one week
Agencies
AJMER Apr 27 :
Distressed over crop loss, a
46-year-old farmer Mahendra
Singh on Sunday committed suicide by hanging himself from roof
of his house at Fatehgarh village
in Beawer block of Ajmer district, some 170km from Jaipur.
This was fourth suicide by a
Rajasthan farmer in the past one
week including that of Gajendra
Singh, who had hanged himself
during AAP rally at Jantar
Mantar in Delhi on last
Wednesday. One farmer at
Bharatpur and another at Alwar
committed suicide allegedly owing to crop damage in the past one
week. "Mahendra owned six
bighas of land. However, his entire crop was damaged in the unseasonal rain but he was expecting government will compensate
at least 40% of the loss. But rev-
Seven women die in
Nepal's earthquake
enue officials reported only 30%
loss, therefore, he was deprived of
any compensation," said Ajmer
Zila Parishad member Vijay
Singh. He said that they had objected to revenue officials' act but
it proved to be of no avail. As per
the state government policy,
those with 50% loss are considered for the compensation.
Recently Centre relaxed the
norms and mandated compensation for 33% and above losses.
Rajasthan is yet to accomplish
the assessment work as per the
revised norms. According to villagers, Mahendra was depressed
since his crop of barely and
Taramira (oilseeds) was damaged in the rain and hailstorm on
March 9 and 10 this year. "He was
annoyed because the survey conducted by the administration was
not appropriate and demanded
right compensation," said a
Surendra friend. As per villagers,
Mahendra, his wife and their 21-
nation was going on. On Sunday,
there was a religious event in the
village for which his wife and other members of the family had
gone out of home. Mahendra remained at home and killed himself by hanging later on. "We
want action against officials responsible for false survey assessment," said Rajender Kumawat
from the same village. As per initial report, district administration counted found out of 1139 villages in Ajmer affected by rain
and hailstorm, which are mostly
in Beawer, Jwaja, Masuda,
Pisanghan, Sarwar and Kekri areas of the district. Roopangar,
Arai and Kishangarh were also
affected. Meanwhile, a delegation
of Congress leaders including
Sachin Pilot and Bhanwar
Jitendra Singh will visit the family of Titu Jat (35), who had committed suicide allegedly due to
crop damage at a Kumher village
in Bharatpur district.
CBI finds 8 firms to be victims of Leakgate
Agencies
GUWAHATI Apr 27 :
Agencies
NEW DELHI Apr 27 :
Seven women from Assam
have died in Nepal earthquake.
All of them were from
Guwahati and were on pilgrimage to Nepal. Altogether 29 people from Assam have so far been
evacuated from Nepal till
Sunday night but there is no information about the whereabouts of at least 65 people with
the state government. The first
batch of 10 people arrived
Guwahati from New Delhi on
Monday morning. Another
batch of 10 are expected to reach
here in the afternoon.
Over 150 people from the
state were in different locations
in Nepal when the earthquake
struck. Union minister of state
for sports Sarbananda Sonowal
while confirming the deaths
said that arrangements are being made to bring the seven bodies to Guwahati. The bodies are
at the morgue in Tribhuban
University Teaching Hospital
in Kathmandu.
In an apparent U-turn in its
'corporate espionage' probe, the
CBI has now found that eight
companies, initially thought to
have colluded with those leaking
documents from various ministries, were actually the victims.
Top sources told TOI that documents
related
to
investments/projects of these
companies were leaked from the
ministries of finance and commerce. Earlier, the agency had
claimed that these companies
were "beneficiaries of the confidential documents" and had arrested Mumbai-based chartered
accountant Khem Chand Gandhi,
suspecting him to be the middleman. The eight companies are
DLF Limitless Ltd, HDFC Bank
Ltd, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
Ltd, Indusind Bank, Novalead
Pharmaceuticals,
Kakardi
British Realty, Modril India Pvt
Ltd and Prime Living. CBI is still
investigating the role of several
corporate houses in the scandal
and now plans to examine executives of these companies. After
BARKHI
year-old son together had done
the crop harvesting. "The family
has no other source of income
and they were in heavy debt,"
added Surendra, a villager.
Mahendra had two sisters.
"Mahendra was worried about
marrying his two sisters who
were living with him and he was
hopeful to get rid of the debt this
time with the good harvest,"
Surendra added.
However, Sadar police station, Beawer, refuted the suicide
due to crop loss although they
have not ruled out depression.
One villager informed TOI that
cops have mentioned Mahendra
as a labourer in the FIR. "We are
probing the incident," said an official. Police registered a case of
suicide and sent the body to government hospital of Beawer for
postmortem and later in evening
handed the body to the relatives.
Mahendra widow Laxmi fainted
in the hospital when PM exami-
Noble souls never dies but remain in
the heart of beloved ones. Barkhi of
our beloved Late Sh Makhan Lal
Raina (Tetrinote Waley) will be performed on Tuesday 28-04-2015 at
our residence at W.No. 15 Mohalla Sh Makhan Lal
Raina
Guru Niwas Poonch.
DEEPLY REMEMBERED BY:
Smt Bimla Devi -Wife
Sons and Daughter-in-laws
Ashok Sharma and Geeta Sharma
Gulshan Sharma and Rajni Sharma
Daughters and Son-in-laws
Kiran Khajuria and Chander Shekhar Khajuria
Sangeet Sharma and Dr Vikrant Sharma
Grand Children: Sabiyata, Chandni, Anubhav, Nandni,
Unnati, Khanak, Narian, Varuthani
9419119855, 9419112175, 9419200547
TENTH DAY
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of Smt Tripta Khajuria
W/o Mr Ram Parkash Khajuria R/o H.No. F667/A New Plot, opp Krishna Building,
Jammu,wholeft for heavenly abode on 19-42015. 10th Day will be performed on 28-4-15
Smt Tripta
at 10.00 am at Badri Narayan Shiv Mandir,
Khajuria
Arodian Di Chapri, Jammu.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Ram Parkash Khajuria -Husband
Sons & Daughter-in-laws
Deepak Khajuria & Bindiya Khajuria
Vinay Khajuria & Sarika Khajuria
Rajesh Khajuria & Priyanka Khajuria
Daughter & Son-in-law
Smt Anuradha & Surbhi Dutt
Grand Children: Priyanka, Abhishek, Suhani, Riteish, Ritvik,
Rishav, Rakshit
Mob. No. 9419222521, 9906048241
10TH DAY/RASAM PAGRI
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad and untimely demise of Prof
(Dr.) Mohan Lal Babu, S/o Late Shri Ram
Chand Babu, on 25th April 2015 at his
Bangalore Residence. Dr. M.L Babu was
original resident of Bagh-e-Mehtab,
Srinagar, Kashmir and later has been re- Prof (Dr.) Mohan
Lal Babu
siding at C-39, Village Enclave (Mattoo
Colony), Trikutanagar Extension East,
Jammu. The Tenth Day is on 3rd of May 2015, Sunday and will
be performed at Srirangapatna, Mysore Road, Karnataka. Dr.
Babu , a great scholar was best of Friends, best Husband, best
Father & best Grandfather and we all MISS Him.
GRIEF STRICKEN:
Smt. Nancy Babu ( Wife)
Smt. Krishna Babu & Family ( Sister-in-law)
Ms. Jyothi & Rajiv Ranjan (Daughter & Son-in-Law)
Ms. Minakshi & Dr.Sanoj Suneja (Daughter & Son-in-Law)
Kak's,
Jogi's,
Kachru's,
Challu's,
Fotedar's,
Raina's,Wangoo's, Wali's and Hali's
Dearest Rachel Ranjan & Dearest Arnav Suneja
(Grand Children)
Current Address:
703 A, Veracious Rosedale Apartment, Whitefield
Opposite -Columbia Asia Hospital, Bangalore- 560066.
Mo: + 91 9008279091, +91 9880283891
initially terming well-known
chartered accountant Rajendra P
Chitale and Reliance Industries
Limited's vice-president (finance) K V Mohanan as "suspects" in the case, and even examining them for three consecutive
days last month, the CBI is yet to
find anything against them. CBI
sources had claimed that a module of chartered accountants,
lawyers and ministry officials
had leaked more than 200 important documents related to
Foreign Investment Promotion
Board clearances to private companies. Some of the crucial documents included clearances to the
Jet-Etihad deal and Vodafone,
which were first reported by TOI.
An officer associated with
the probe said, "We are still examining a large number of documents which were recovered in
the hard disks and offices of arrested persons." HDFC and the
other companies had strongly denied their association with any
chartered accountant who leaked
documents for them. An HDFC
spokesperson had said after the
CBI raids, "We have read with utter dismay the media reports and
the allegations made therein. We
are shocked at our name being
mentioned in them.
We categorically deny having known or heard of, let alone
interacted with, the individual
named in these news reports.
Any suggestion that we may have
indulged in any wrongdoing is
completely baseless and untrue.
We state that these allegations,
apart from being baseless and untrue, are defamatory and an attempt to malign the reputation of
HDFC Bank." CBI has so far arrested six persons including an
under secretary in the department of disinvestment and grievances Ashok Kumar Singh, assistant in FIPB section Ram Niwas,
section officer in the department
of economic affairs Lala Ram
Sharma, another government official Daljeet Singh, chartered accountant Khemchand Gandhi
Paresh
Chimanlal
and
Buddhadev, a partner in Chitale
and Associates. CBI is probing
leak of "first and second level of
decision making in the finance
ministry and commerce ministry", which were taken by secretaries and ministers.
10TH DAY/KRIYAKARAM
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved mother Smt. Kamlawati Raina (Ama Jee) W/o
Late Sh. Saroop Nath Raina erstwhile
resident of Hawanad Chowalgam
(Kulgam) Kashmir presently at Flat No.
14 Block 135, Lane-22 Jagti Township Smt. Kamlawati
Raina
Nagrota)
Jammu on 23-04-2015.
TENTH DAY KRIYA will be performed on
02-05- 2015 at TRT Nagrota Ghat
Opposite Toll Post Nagrota at 8.30 a.m.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Son & Daugher-in-law
Sh. Roop Krishen Raina & Smt. Santosh Raina
Smt. Nancy Raina W/o Late Sh. Soom Nath Raina-Daughter
Smt. Phoola Raina W/o Late Sh. Moti Lal Raina-Daughter
Miss Meghna and Master Ritesh-Grand Children
Samast Raina Pariwar
of Hawanad Chowalgam (Kulgam)
094191-69688
BHOG/ANTIM ARDAS
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved S.
Mohinder Singh S/o Late S. Rawail Singh
R/o Simbal Camp Ward No. 2, Near
Central Gurudwara, R S Pura Jammu
who left for heavenly abode on 20-4-15.
Programme Aramb Sri Akhand Path
S. Mohinder
Sahib ji on 27-4-15 (Monday) at 9.00 a.m.
Singh
Bhog Sri Akhand Path Sahib Ji on 29-415 Wednesday at 9.00 a.m. at our residence. Antim Ardas at
Gurudwara Takri Sahib Ward No. 1 at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. &
Langer onwards
GRIEF STRICKEN
S. Nain Singh-Father-in-law
Sdn. Dalip Kour-Wife
Dr Gurnam Singh (Vet. Dept.)-Brother
S. Kuldeep Singh (Policeman)-Brother
S. Parvinder Singh (Forest Deptt.)-Nephew
Sdn Harmeet Kour & S. Parvinder Singh-Daughter & Son-in-law
S. Ramnik Singh-Son
S. Harjeet Singh-Son
S. Rasmeet Singh-Son
Mob: 9796227000, 9469754741, 9796661319
10TH DAY KRIYA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved Sh.
Hari Krishen Handoo S/o Late Sh.
Niranjan Nath Handoo of (Rainawari)
presently at H.No. 25, Sec -8 Trikuta
Nagar, Jammu who left for heavenly Sh. Hari Krishen
abode on 19-04-2015. May his soul rest
Handoo
in peace. TENTH DAY KRIYA will be held
on 28th of April 2015 (Tuesday) at Shakti
Nagar Ghat Opposite A.G’s Office at 8:00 PM.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Nancy Handoo - Wife
Sister & Brother-in-law
Smt. Chuni & Sh. M.L Handoo
Smt. Rita & Sh. P.N Handoo - Bhabhi & Brother
Reena & Sunil Handoo - Daughter-in-law & Son
Sunita & Ramesh Raina - Daughter & Son-in-law
Raj & Jitender Raina - Daughter & Son-in-law
Karuna & Sanjay Tickoo - Daughter & Son-in-law
And Grand Children
Ph: 0191-2471795 Mob : 9796083040, 09818879191
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 2
10TH DAY/RASAM PAGRI
With profound grief sorrow, we regret to the
sad demise of our beloved Late Smt. Ishra
Devi Bandral W/o Late Th Baldev Singh
Bandral R/o 186/1 Sanjay Nagar near
Pahalwans sweet factory who expired on
19-4-2015. TENTH DAY will be performed
on 28-4- 2015 Tuesday at 11 AM at our residence. The RASAM PAGRI will be performed at 3 PM Friday the Ist of May 2015 at
our residence.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Sham Dev Singh - Son - 9906167256
Krishan Dev Singh - Son - 9797752010
Nardev Singh - Son- 9419238582
10TH DAY KRIYA
Smt. Ishra Devi
Bandral
10TH DAY/KRIYA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved Smt.
Shubh Lata Bali W/o Late Sh. Kamal Nain
Bali. Tenth Day will be performed on
Monday 27-04-2015 and Kriya will be
performed on Tuesday 28- 04-2015 at
our residence Gole Gujral, Munshi Chak Smt. Shubh Lata
Camp Road. Uthala will be performed on
Bali
Wednesday 29-04-2015 at Shiv Mandir
Talab Tillo Chowk from 3 PM to 4 PM.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Sanjeev Bali, Krishan Kant Bali - Sons
Kiran Bali, Monika Bali - Daughters-in-law
Nidhi Dutta, Punam Sharma - Daughters
Bhopal Dutta, Kamal Sharma - Sons-in-law
(M): 8716821049, 9103321049
BHOG/ANTIM ARDAS
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our beloved Sdr
Updesh Kour W/o S. Swaroop Singh
Sodhi R/o Kanthbagh, Baramulla
Kashmir who left for heavenly abode on
date: 19-04-2015. Programme:- Aramb
Sdr Updesh
Sri Akhand Path Sahib ji on 26-04-2015
Kour
(Sunday) at 9.00 a.m. Bhog of Sri Akhand
Path Sahib Ji on 28-04-2015 (Tuesday)
at 9.30 a.m. at our Jammu residence
Govind Pura Jammu Cantt. Shabad
Kirtan and Antim Ardas will be performed
at our residence from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30
p.m. followed by Guru Ka Langar.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Mother-in-law
Sdr. Gobind Kour W/o Lt. S. Sucha Singh Sodhi
S. Swaroop Singh Sodhi-Husband
S.Dalbir Singh Sodhi & Sr. Ishvinder Pal KourSon & Daughter-in-law
S. Gurdeep Singh Sodhi-Son
Sr. Jasbir Kour & S. Daljeet Singh-Daughter & Son-in-law
All relatives & Grand Children
Phone No: 9419953781, 9796261723
KRIYA/RASAM PAGRI
With profound grief & sorrow, we inform
the untimely and sad demise of our mother Smt. Chander Kanta Sharma W/o Lt.
Sh. Mulkh Raj Sharma (Retd. DGM JCC
Bank) R/o JMC-24, Friends Colony, Patta
Paloura, Jammu. 11th Day/ Kriya will be
on Tuesday 28th April 2015, 10 am onwards and Rasam Pagri on 29th April
2015 (Wednesday) 10 am onwards.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Naveen Sharma -(Eldest Son)
Nischal Sharma -(Son)
Son & Daughter-in-law
Manik Sharma & Tanvi Sharma
Contact No: 9419143976, 9796096221
Smt. Chander
Kanta Sharma
KRIYA/UTHALA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform
the sad demise of our beloved mother Smt.
Chander Kanta W/o Late Sh. C.L. Bajaj R/o
H.No 197, Upper Bazar Jammu who left for
heavenly abode on 17th of April 2015
(Friday). Kriya will be performed on
Wednesday 29th of April 2015 at our resiSmt. Chander
dence at 12.00 Noon. Rasam Pagri/Uthala
Kanta
will be performed at Jain Hall, Rani Park
Jammu on 29th of April 2015 between 4.30
pm to 5.30 pm.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Sons & Daughters-in-law
Smt. Ritu & Sh. Shiv Arora
Smt. Renu & Sh. Rajinder Singh
Daughters & Sons-in-law
Smt. Malti & Sh. Rakesh Arora.
Ms. Rashmi Bajaj (Advocate J&K High Court)
Sh. Harbans Lal Arora -Jeth Ji
Smt. Raj Rani Baweja -Bhabi
Smt. Kamla & Sh. Gurbachan Lal Arora -Brother & Bhabi
Gr. Children : Rakshit, Raghav, Shreya, Riya, Rijula & Nivraanj
World Vision Cable N/W Mastgarh & Arora Cable N/W Rehari
JBLJ Shop No. 112 Sabji Mandi Narwal Jammu
Mob. No: 9419190577, 9419194566
BARKHI
A year has passed since you left us for
heavenly abode. We still feel your presence in every moment of our life and you
will always remains in our hearts. Barkhi
of our beloved Sh Darshan Kumar Verma
S/o Late Sh Karam Chand Verma R/o
Sh Darshan
Udhampur (Kathil Wale) will be perKumar Verma
formed on Tuesday 28th of April 2015 at
Q.No. 20, Type-II, HUDCO, Old
University Campus, Canal Road Jammu
between 10.00 PM to 12.00 noon.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Smt Tripta Devi W/o Late Sh Kewal Krishan Verma - Bhabi
Smt Champa & Sh Bansi Lal Verma (Rtd HD) -Bhabi & Brother
Smt Kailash Verma W/o Late Shri Ved Prakash Verma - Bhabi
Smt Santosh & Sh Jagdish Saraf - Sister & Brother-in-Law
Sons & Daughters-in-Law
Shri Rajesh Kumar Verma (PDD) & Smt Vinod Bala Verma
Shri Ravi Kant Verma (Univ of Jammu) & Smt Shaweta Verma
Dr Susheel Verma (BGSBU, Rajouri) & Dr Renu Gupta
(Verma) (SKUAST-J, Jammu)
Sh Subash Singh (Sonu) (CAPD)
Daughter & Son-in-Law
Smt Bindu Verma & Shri Rajesh Gandotra (AAO, CDA)
Gr. Children: Ananta, Manya, Chaitanya, Lavanay, Raaishi & Shrihan
Mobile Nos: 9419159875, 9419193025, 9419797202
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad and untimely demise of Smt.
Nancy Raina W/o Late M. L. Raina who
left for heavenly abode on 19th April 2015
at D-202 Annsadhan Appartments Plot
No. 22 Sec-6 Dwarka-75, New Delhi.
TENTH DAY KRIYA will be performed at
Smt. Nancy
“Nigambodh” Ghat Kashmiri Gate Ghat
Raina
No. 25, on 28th April at 7.30 a.m.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Ajay Raina & Purmina Raina-Son and Daughter-in-law
Amrita Koul & Kuldeep Koul-Daughter and Son-in-law
Madhu Pandita and Satish Pandita-Daughter and Son-in-law
Grand Children : Arya, Ameen, Aadeev, Medha , Raina’s,
Mukoo’s, Dhar’s, Kachroo’s, Bhat’s and Pandita’s
Mobile No: 09419196813, 09958003601, 09717001445
10TH DAY KRIYA
WITH PROFOUND GRIEF AND SO
ROW, WE INFORM THE SAD DEMISE OF SMT. UMA SAPROO W/O
LT. C. L. SAPROO LEFT FOR HEAVENLY ABODE ON 22.04.2015 AT NOIDA. TENTH DAY KRIYA WILL BE
SMT. UMA
PERFORMED AT MURAD NAGAR,
SAPROO
GANGA GHAT ON 01.05.2015.
IN GRIEF:
SH. D. N.SUS (BROTHER)
MIRZA.
CONTACT : 9540578222,9911139345,9711003198
TENTH DAY
With profound grief & sorrow, we regret to inform that our beloved father Sh Kanya Lal
Gadroo S/o Lt Sh Janki Nath Gadroo R/o
1273 Sector- 8, Faridabad original resident
of Habba Kadal, Near Ganjoo House left for
heavenly abode on 20-4- 2015. Tenth Day
Kriya will be performed on 29th April 2015,
Sh Kanya Lal
Wednesday at 8.30 AM at Pallah Gath,
Gadroo
Opposite Kanisha Tower, Main Bypass
Road, Faridabad.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Sons & Daughters-in-Law
Mr Anil Gadroo & Mrs Shivani Gadroo
Mr Sunil Gadroo & Mrs Monika Gadroo
Miss Anjali Gadroo - Daughter
(Mob No: 09906514670, 09818415857, 0129-2245049
10TH DAY KRIYA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform about the sad demise of our beloved
Smt Janak Rani (Buli) W/o Late Sh Janki
Nath Raina originally resident of Shivpura
(Kashmir) presently residing at H.No 50,
Lane No 2, Adrash Nagar Bantalab
Jammu on 21.04.2015. Tenth Day Kriya Smt Janak Rani
(Buli)
will be performed on 30.04.2015
(Thursday) at Muthi Ghat near Director
School Education Jammu at 8.30 AM.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Daughter & Son-in-law
Smt Kaki Koul & Sh A.K Koul
Sh N.L Razdan & Family (Najafgarh Delhi)
Smt Baby Mattoo & Sh Ashok Ji Mattoo (Rohini Delhi)
Smt Dolly & Sh Nana Ji Zutshi (Manorma Vihar Bohri)
Smt Sheela Bhau & Family (Rohini Delhi)
Amrita and Ashish Ticku (Faridabad)
Mobile: 09868537477, 011-2593235
10TH DAY KRIYA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad demise of our mother
Smt. Manmohini Toshkhani W/o Late
Sh. A.K. Toshkhani R/o Badiyaan Bala
Srinagar at present 3011-Sec 44-D
Chandigarh on 19th April 2015. Smt. Manmohini
TENTH DAY KRIYA will be performed
Toshkhani
on 28th April 2015 at 9.00 a.m. at River
Gaggar near Nada Sahib Gurdwara
Chandigarh.
GRIEF STRICKEN
Mrs Nalni Toshkhani-Daughter-in-law
Mrs Vijaya Kak-Daughter
Mrs Pamita and Mr Suresh Misri-Daughter and Son-in-law
Mrs Kanchan and Mr K L Pandita-Daughter and Son-in-law
Grand Children : Dheemta, Falak, Vimal, Rachna, Tushar,
Aushutosh, Harsheta & Kohsheen
CHOUBARSI
CHOUBARSI OF OUR BELOVED LATE
SH ASHUTOSH SADOTRA, WILL BE
PERFORMED ON 3RD MAY 2015, AT
H.NO. 10, EXT 4, TRIKUTA NAGAR, AT
11.00 AM.
DEEPLY MISSED BY:SH VISHWANATH SADOTRA - FATHER SH ASHUTOSH
SMT SHEELA DEVI - MOTHER
SADOTRA
DR K C SADOTRA - CHACHA JI
SMT USHA DEVI - CHACHI JI
SH MOHAN LAL SADOTRA - CHACHA JI
SMT SUSHMA DEVI - CHACHI JI
SMT RANI DEVI - WIFE
SH VIRENDAR SADOTRA - BROTHER
SH SURENDAR SADOTRA - BROTHER
SH RAM LAL & SMT ARCHANA DEVI BROTHER-IN-LAW & SISTER
PHONE NO: 9796493721
10TH DAY/KRIYA
With profound grief and sorrow, we inform the sad and untimely demise of Smt.
Nirmal Dhar/Bhat W/o Mr R.C. Bhat, who
left for heavenly abode on 23rd April
2015, at Flat No K-0, Suhanbhava
Appartments,
Bangalore.
Tenth
Day/Kriya will be performed at Triveni
Smt. Nirmala
Srinangapatnam, Mysore on 2nd May
Dhar/Bhat
2015 at 6:30 AM.
GRIEF STRICKEN
R.C. Bhat -Husband
Swastik Bhat -Son
Shwetha & Deepak Korti -Daughter & Son-in-law
M.K Bhat & Asha Bhat -Brother-in-law & Sister-in-law
Usha Dhar W/o Late Sampooran Dhar -Sister-in-law
Santosh & Ashwani Moudgil -Sister & Brother-in-law
Twisha -Grand Child
Mobile : 0963230691
GLIMPSES OF FUTURE
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL, 28, 2015, PAGE 3
Government is committed to diversify
education scenario of J&K: Naeem
Srinagar, April 27:
Speaking on the occasion, the
Education Minister said the
Government is committed to diversify the education scenario of
J&K State to provide opportunities to youth/students to exhibit
their talent besides providing ample opportunities of employment.
While appreciating the organizers for holding such exhibitions he hoped that this exhibition will receive due attention
from not only the art lovers but
also from common man around
which the life and works of R.K.
Laxman revolved. He said the
aim of Cartoon Exhibition is to
promote creative art.
The Minister also stressed
for inculcating creative activities like cartooning among the
students.
An
Exhibition
on
International Cartoons was held
at S P College Srinagar here today.
The Exhibition was organized by
ICCR, Union Ministry of External
Affairs to pay tribute to the legendry cartoonist R.K. Laxman.
The Minister for Education,
Syed Nayeem Akhtar Andrabi
was the chief guest on the occasion. Vice Chancellor Kashmir
University, Dr. Khurshid Iqbal
Director
School
Andrabi,
Education Kashmir, Principal S.P
College, Principal Amar Singh
College, besides the Regional
Director ICCR, Srinagar Ayaz
Nazki,
galaxy
of
Rasool
Cartoonists and large number of
students and teaching fraternity
were present on the occasion.
NCC gears up for
earthquake preparedness
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
In the wake of the recent earthquakes in Nepal and adjoining areas including India, the National Cadet Corps is
planning to mobilise its cadets to actively organize mock
drills in various schools to minimise damage in case of any
earthquake. Since children in school are vulnerable to such
disaster the National Cadet Corps has decided to spread
awareness regarding the after care and management of such
a disaster in case it happens. National Cadet Corps would educate all its cadets across its country about do’s and don’ts in
case of an earthquake. It plans to carry out mock drills in
schools and will also concentrate on first aid and casualty
evacuation.
The National Cadet Corps has a fourteen lakh strong
cadet base across the country and education of all these
cadets towards disaster management would go a long way in
ensuring that minimum casualties occur in case such an
earthquake happens in India.
Rotary Club Jammu
donates garments
to Bal Niketan
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Various organizations today expressed grief over the destruction
and devastation in Nepal due to
earthquake. Organizations also expressed solidarity with Nepali people and condoled the demise of victims of earthquake
Tawi Andolan activists condoled the deaths occurred in Nepal,
UP, Bihar due to devastating earthquake. On Sunday Sandya Arti the
participants observed two minutes
silence and prayed for the peace of
departed souls.
Addressing the gathering of
Tawi activists, Convenor of
Andolan Chander Mohan Sharma
(Adv.) expressed heartfelt sympathy
with all those who were injured and
those who suffered losses.
Sharma praised Central government for extending fully help to the
victims. He further said that such
natural calamities occur only due to
disproportionate and ruthless exploitation of nature. There is need
for strict implementation of environmental laws particularly unplanned development should be
strictly prohibited all over this subcontinent.
Sharma said that tawi andolan
is fighting for preservation of which
bodies, forest and for maintenance
of ecological balance.
However, Imam Khomeini
(R.A) Memorial Trust Kargil on behalf of the people of Kargil, Ladakh
express its shock and grief over recent devastating earthquake which
hit Nepal and surrounding states of
our country in which thousands of
precious human lives have been lost
with massive damages to infrastructure.
In this moment of grief and sorrow, the people of Kargil (Ladakh)
stand by the victims and share equal
pain and agony with affected people
of Nepal as well as all other earthquake hit areas. They prayed
Almighty Allah for the peace of the
departed souls and speedy recovery
of the injured
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
A protest demonstration of
Anganwadi workers and helpers under
the banner of J&K Trade Union Front
was held in front of Press Club, Jammu.
The protest held to condemn the termination order of Anganwadi worker and
helpers by State Mission Director ICDS,
J&K Jammu vide his order No. 13 SMD
of 2015 dated 22.04.2015 who have been
working in the ICDS for the last more
than 10 years and have got departmental
training of anganwadi workers for
three months and also other required
courses in the ICDS wing.
The number of such anganwadi
workers and helpers who have been terminated by this order is in thousands,
their appointment and to follow the
proper procedure was the responsibility of authorities who during this long
period miserably failed to fulfill the required procedure for the no fault of poor
anganwadi workers and helpers.
Hundreds of Anganwadi workers
and helpers gathered in Press Club
Jammu raising slogans against the
ICDS authorities who have issued this
unlawful and unjustified order for termination these workers and helpers
who were engaged in this central sponsored scheme and are continuously
working in ICDS to make this nutrition
BJP committed for overall development: Yudhvir Sethi
Kick-starts
development
works
Jammu, April 27:
In an impressive function,
Rotary Club Jammu, today donated garments and distributed
food items to the inmates of Bal
Niketan, Ambphalla, Jammu.
The function was presided
over by Rakesh Gupta,
President, Rotary Club Jammu.
Members of Rotary Club
Jammu spent time with the
children while interacting with
them, listening and delighting
them with songs, poems and
jokes. They also distributed
gifts and eatables among them.
On the occasion the students of Bal Niketan Ved
Mandir offered special prayers
amidst religious rituals and
Vedic mantras.
Rakesh Gupta, President,
Rotary Club Jammu in his address lauded the role and efforts
of the Ved Mandir Committee
for rehabilitation of the poor
and hapless boys and girls.
Various orgns express grief over
Nepal earthquake devastation
Anganwadi workers hold protest
against termination order
Jammu, March 26:
Reiterating commitment to develop
Jammu city on most modern lines,
Senior BJP leader Yudhvir Sethi today
said the party honours historic support
of the people and all out efforts would be
done to develop the town in a major
tourist hub, adding that work on the
project to develop the city into a smart
city has already begun.
He was addressing a gathering of
people before kick starting various development works in different areas of
old Jammu city.
“We are committed for all round development of the state and with active
support from the central government
soon the state would have one of the best
infrastructures in the country,” he
added. The areas in which infrastruc-
ture works were started include,
Khilonya wali Gali, Afghana Mohalla,
Mohalla Jandraya and adjoining areas
of the wholesale business hub of the
town. Various lane-drain works, street
lightening and sanctioning of new mast
lights was initiated. On the occasion,
Thousands thronged in army
recruitment drive in J&K
To fill 1305 vacancies
Jammu, April 27:
A large number of aspirant candidates have turned up for Territorial
Army (Engineer Regiment) recruitment rallies being held at different parts
of J&K i.e Surankot, Doda & Reasi
(Jammu Region), Anantnag, Baramulla
& Kupwara (Kashmir Region).
Territorial Army recruitment rallies are being held from today for raising
of three Battalions of Territorial Army
(Engineer Regiment). Aspiring youth
from different part of J&K are participating in the rally to fill up 1305 vacancies. The rallies have been planned by
Army’s Northern Command in consultation with civil administration; specific dates have been earmarked for candidates of different districts. Army has established assistance booths at different
rally sites. The recruitment in
Territorial Army is being held under
the aegis of Army’s Northern Command
for vacancies of soldier general duty,
clerks, store keeper technical, surveyor
and tradesmen. More than 5000 aspirant
candidates have turned up at each rally
sites. The recruitment drive will continue till 9th May 2015
Yudhvir Sethi along with a team of JMC
officials inspected different areas and
listened to the grievances projected by
the people of these areas. He called upon
the authorities to launce special sanitation drives in the area so as to give new
look to the ever busy business streets of
the old city. He laid stress on maintaining quality standard of development
works so as to create durable infrastructure.
Sethi said BJP is working on the
agenda to upgrade infrastructure in all
the three regions of the state and special
focus would be given to those far-off areas which lack the much needed basic
infrastructure.
He said economy of the state is very
much dependant on tourism industry
and all out efforts would be initiated to
develop independent tourist circuits in
Jammu region. Focus has to be given to
retain those yatris which visit Shri
Mata Vaishno Devi and expand the
scope of pilgrim tourism into other
parts of the province, he added.
Anil Masoom, Pardeep Singh
Jamwal, Deep Singh, Ashok Gupta,
Kuldeep Singh Jamwal, Arun Sethi,
Pardeep Langeh, Suraj Parkash,
Gurdash Sharma, Satish Kumar,
Sanjeev Anand, Jeeta Sardar, Micky
Vaid, Rahul, Ajay Kumar, Hemant,
Vishu, Ankush, Pappu Sardar, Sonu,
Amreek Singh, Ashwani Arora, Pankaj
and others were present.
JTC, SKF condemn statement of Mehbooba on KPs
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
A meeting of the Jagti
Tenement Committee and Soan
Kashmir Front J&K was held here
today under the presidentship of
Shadi Lal Pandita, President Jagti
Tenement
Committee/Soan
Kashmir Front J&K. The meeting
was attended by the office bearers
and members of both the committees.
While speaking in the meeting, Shadi Lal Pandita has expressed his grave over the TV interview at India TV Channel by
Mehbooba Mufti, PDP Leader on
25-04-2015 her statement the
Kashmiri Pandit Migrant community is well settled community and
are not interested in their return to
Kashmir valley. However she has
said only few are interested in
their return and rehabilitation in
Kashmir valley and there is no
need for a town ship. She has further said that those interested in
their return and rehabilitation
may resettle at their original
places where from they had migrated, just like the statements given by separatist. Pandita has said
that Mehbooba Mufti is playing
the same tunes as have been
played by the separatist leaders.
Pandita has said that it is shameful
for a leader saying that Kashmiri
Pandit Migrant community is well
settled which is living an exiled life
for past more than 25 years and living at meagre assistance of Rs. 1650
per head. If these migrants who are
living at a meagre financial assis-
tance of Rs. 1650/- are well settled,
it means she is unaware of the facts
and reality under which the
Kashmiri Pandit Community is
hailing. Pandita has said that
those educated Migrant youth who
have attained higher qualification
are forced to work in private establishments at meagre wages ranging from Rs. 1000 to 1500, are such
youth of this migrant community
well settled. It is shameful.
He has condemned the statement of Mehbobba Mufti on
Kashmiri Pandits and on Masarat
Alam. Others who were present in
the meeting are:- Rattan Lal Bhat,
Rajinder Dhar, Sunil Raina,
Sanjay Pandita, Piray Lal Pandita,
P.L. Bhat, Hari Krishan, R.N.
Pandita, C.L. Pandita, Methan
Pandita, Ramesh Bhat, and others.
programme successful.
While addressing protesting workers and helpers Veteran Trade Union
Leader Mohd. Gafoor Dar State
President J&K National Trade Union
Front condemned the attitude of the
State Government particularly the
ICDS Minister Bali Ram Bhagat who
has started harassing and victimizing
the poor anganwadi workers and
helpers by issuing termination orders.
Dar appealed to the Chief Minister to intervene personally in the matter to save
these poor workers from this termination order.
Other demands which were also
raised in the protest dharna included
enhancement of Honorarium of
Anganwadi Workers and helpers Rs.
10,000/- and 5,000/- per month respectively, enhancement of promotion quota of ICDS Supervisors, workers and
helpers from 50% to 80%, removal of pay
anomalies of ICDS Supervisors at par
with their counterparts in the country
(i.e. 5,000/-8,000/- pre-revised grade),
purchase of best quality nutrition as per
the local needs of the area thus modifying the old pattern of purchasing sub
standard nutrition.
Other activists who addressed the
Dharna were Rajinder Kumar,
Mehjabeen, Zaida Akhter, Aruna,
Komal, Suman, Shahida Parveen,
Naida, Vikramjeet Singh and others.
Sat Sharma demands for
stoppage of SVDK YPR
premium train at Jammu
Writes to Union Railway Minister
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Showing his concern for Jammuites, BJP MLA
Jammu West Sat Sharma (CA) wrote a letter to Union
Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu in which he requested
on behalf of people of Jammu to the Railway Minister that
a stoppage of Train No. 22679/22680 at Jammu should be
made which is running between Bangalore YPR
(Yashwantpuram) Railway Station and SVDK Katra
Vaishno Devi Railway Station. Pertinent to mention, the
train does not have any stoppage in Jammu in its two way
journey. After meeting a group of hundreds of residents of
Jammu and youth from different areas, he wrote the letter to the Union Minister and showed his concern.
In a press statement issued, Sat Sharma (CA) said that
a representation on behalf of Jammuites has been made
and a letter of communication regarding the same has
been made to the Union Railways Minister. In the letter,
Sharma extended his gratitude to the Minister and said
that under the guidance and earnest desire of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, the train was started and on behalf of public at large of Jammu province he thanked him
and said that the train has provided great relief to the
devotees of Shree Mata Vaishno Devi Ji and inhabitants
of Jammu.
He mentioned in the letter that passengers who are residing in Jammu, the winter capital of the State have to
board and alight the train at Jammu Tawi Railway
Station, but as no stoppage of the Train No. 22679/22680 is
given at Jammu Tawi Railway Station, a great inconvenience is caused to the residents/passengers of Jammu and
for boarding the Train they have to firstly go back to
Katra, which is 50 kms from Jammu.
The BJP MLA further also mentioned that a large
number of youth hailing from Jammu and Kashmir are
either studying or serving in Bangalore (Karnataka) and
they use to travel frequently in this train.
He urged the Minister that it will be in the interest of
public at large that stoppage of atleast 10 minutes is given
to Train No. 22679/22680 at Jammu Tawi Railway Station
is made and if it is so it shall not disturb the time schedule
of the said train and rather it will give a sigh of relief and
convenience to the passengers while boarding and alighting the Train at Jammu Tawi Railway Station and besides it will also save their time and money.
He requested the Union Railway Minister to look into
the matter personally and make a provision of to add one
stoppage of Train at Jammu Tawi Railway Station for the
convenience of public at large.
Gorkhas pay tributes to Nepal earthquake victims Sewa Bharti organizes blood donation camp
Pray for well being of
relatives
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
The locals of Gorkha Nagar,
Bahu Fort have paid their rich
tribute to the victims of Nepal
earthquake and also prayed for
the wellbeing of their relatives.
Hundreds of local’s resident
of Gorkha Nagar, who actually
haling from Nepal and living in
Jammu since Maharaja’s era assembled at local temple and paid
rich tributes to the victim of
Nepal earthquake.
The locals observed 2 minute
silence and also wished for their
speedy recovery of injured persons. Rashi Ram, a priest in
Gorkha Nagar temple—who
hails from Gorkha district in
Nepal and his wife Padma, who
two sons still untraced after devastating earthquake also pre-
sented on the occasion .
Meanwhile, prominent social worker Aditi Sharma, president of Aditi Welfare India
Charitable Trust (AWICT) interacted with the locals and shared
their grief. She collected the data
from families, who relatives or
family members are missing.
Speaking on the occasion,
Aditi assured that Trust will take
the matter of locating missing
person’s ion priority with state
government and Prime Minister
Office.
“Trust will take up the issue
on priority, and ensure that all
the resident of J&K evacuated
safe,” she said.
Prominent other who are
presented on the occasion were,
Leela Jamwal, in-charge Gorkha
Nagar and Bahu Fort area.
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Sewa Bharti organized Blood
Donation camp at Sewa Bharti headquarters, Ambphalla Jammu. The
donors were mainly the students
studying at our computer center
along with the members of Sewa
Bharti.
A team of doctors along with
staff from Govt. Medical College,
Bakshi Nagar, Jammu monitored
the blood donation camp personally.
It is to mention that Sewa Bharti
J&K is a non-governmental organization working among the poor,
down trodden and weaker Sections
of the society, purely on human values. Besides other social activities,
we have been organizing Blood donation camps twice in a year from almost 7 years.
Glimpses of Future
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 4
Zulfkar for monitoring of
developmental works in rural areas
MLA East, JMC Com conduct
on-spot assessment of sanitation works
Constitutes panel to remove bottlenecks impeding projects
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Minister for CA&PD & Tribal Affairs
Ch Zulfkar Ali today asked the concerned
officers to conduct a detailed survey of the
remote areas and formulate a comprehensive project for development of basic infrastructure keeping in view the topography
of district . inister gave these directions
while chairing officers meeting held to review the physical and financial achievements of various developmental projects
in Rajouri and directed the executing
agencies to expedite the progress on different ongoing works.
Reviewing the infrastructure status
of various school buildings being constructed under RMSA , it was informed
that the school buildings in Kanthol,
Damool, Sankari, Kharad Baddhal and
Trala would be completed before August
this year. Referring to certain school
buildings where the work has been
stopped due to funds constraint, the minister directed the CEO to take up the matter
with Director RMSA for early release of
funds for timely completion of these vital
works. The Minister also took stock of
progress on construction of health centres
in various areas including , Jamola,
Nayeem condoles Mudassir Jabbar’s
death
Chakbatti, Gabbar etc and directed the executing agency to ensure speedy completion of these buildings so that required infrastructure and medical facilities are put
in place in these centres to cater the health
care needs of people in far flung areas.
Expressing dismay over the poor conditions of roads in district , the Minister directed the concerned to restore all the
stretches in hilly areas at earliest so that
the people do not suffer .
He also sought detail of present status
of all the road of the district. While laying
stresses on the maintenance of roads ,the
minister said that the matter of keeping additional maintenance funds under different schemes would be taken up with concerned department so that these roads are
maintained. Zulfkar constituted a five
member panel headed by ADDC to look into the bottlenecks hampering the timely
and speedy execution of developmental
works in the district .He also asked the concerned to submit the report in this regard
within next one month time to the Deputy
Commissioner office. He said that that fortnightly review will be taken of the status of
ongoing projects with special focus on the
rural areas. Later the minister paid obeisance at Shahdara Sharief and prayed for
the welfare and prosperity of the state.
Sajad tours Tarathpora village of
Handwara constituency
Kupwara, April 27:
The Minster for Animal Husbandry and Science Technology, Mr.
Sajad Gani Lone who is on extensive tour to his Handwara constituency
today addressed various public meeting at Tarathpora, villgam area in
which a huge public gathering attended the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister exhorted upon the unemployed educated youth to
adopt the animal husbandry, fisheries and sheep sectors to generate their
own job oriented avenues as there is a large scope of self employment in
these sectors. He reiterated the steps taken by the present government to
provide all the basic amenities to the people of all the regions of the state.
He said that people are availing the change slogans and all the genuine demands would be solved as per the people’s aspirations and within the common programme of the coalition partners. MLA Kupwara, Mr. Bashir
Ahmad Dar, district and tehsil level officers accompanied the Minister
during the tour at these villages
that Corporation will construct sub office in the area
for the convenience of the
Safaikaramcharis and
stocking of lime and other
related material.
People of the area appreciated the MLA and
Commissioner for this goodwill gesture and thanked the
MLA for taking keen interest in mitigating the problems faced by the inhabitants of the area and
Municipal Veterinary
Officer (Zonal Officer-II) Dr.
Zafar Iqbal, Chief Transport
Officer were appreciated by
one and all for taking keen
interest in sanitation drive.
DC distributes cheques among Anjum Fazili visits city areas
landslide hit families of Frasthar
& Laridoora Baramulla
GOF Staff Reporter
Baramulla, April 27:
To rehabilitate the families of landslide hit villages of
Frasthar and Laridoora of
Baramulla,
Deputy
Commissioner Baramulla distributed cheques among the
affected families today at Dak
Bungalow
Baramulla.
deputy
Additional
Commissioner Baramulla and
Tehsildar Baramulla were also present on the occasion.
Cheques worth Rs. 25 lakhs
were distributed among the af-
fected families on the occasion. Each affected family was
given cheque amounting to
Rs. 75,000. As many as 38 houses were damaged during the
recent heavy rains. The families have been shifted temporarily in tents. Speaking on
the occasion, the Deputy
Commissioner said that the
Government is determined for
the rehabilitation of the affected families.
He said that the proposal
for their permanent rehabilitation plan will be submitted
to the Government for ap-
proval soon. Meanwhile, the
Deputy Commissioner has directed all the Sub-divisional
Magistrates and Tehsildars of
the district to assess the damage to residential and non-residential structures due to the
recent heavy rains and submit
the report immediately. The
Deputy Commissioner also
visited Baramulla town
market. He took a comprehensive review of the water
lodging problem in the market and directed the concerned officers to be vigilant
in case of any emergency.
Sheep Husbandry organized free medical
camps
Kulgam, April 27:
Free medical camps were organized by Sheep Husbandry department at
Qaimoh Kulgam during which the sheep and goat rearers were sensitized
about diseases their causes and precautions to be taken. During these camps,
free medicines were also distributed among the rearers. The experts also
asked that participants to maintain sanitation in and around animal shed to
prevent diseases. Fodder seed kits were also distributed among 80 rearers.
During these camps, District Sheep Husbandry Officer Kulgam, experts, Vets
and a good number of farmers were present.
ed shifting of PHC to new building which has already been completed.Later, the MLA visited
Government Polytechnic College, Gogji Bagh and
inspected various blocks of College which were
damaged in September floods.
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Shopian, April 27:
The Orientation/Training schedule for the selected aspirants of Hajj pilgrimage of district Shopian has been fixed by the State Hajj Committee
Srinagar for May 06, 2015. Accordingly, all the selected aspirants of Hajj pilgrimage 2015 of district Shopian are informed to attend the said
Orientation/Training Programme at Town Hall Shopian on May 06, 2015 at 10
a.m. onwards. Master Trainers, Mr. Ghulam Nabi, Mushtaq Ahmad and
Abdul Qayoom who have been selected by the State Hajj Committee, Srinagar
as Master Trainers will impart Orientation/Training. The contact No’s of the
Master Trainers are 9419056066, 858336553 & 7298664303 respectively.
Member
Legislative
Assembly,
Ms.
Anjum Fazili today
made an extensive
tour of Srinagar city.
The MLA visited various areas of Raj Bagh,
and met with several
deputationists who
put forth various issues pertaining to the
day to day affairs including supply of essential commodities,
drinking water, electricity, repairs and renovation of roads, lanes and
drains. MLA also visited PHC Chanapora and took
stock of facilities being provided to the patients in
the Health Centre. On the occasion, people demand-
NSUI starts Signature Campaign, Demands
immediate revocation New Recruitment Policy
Rising Star Corps
celebrates Raising Day
Orientation, training for intending
selected Hajj pilgrims of Shopian
district announced
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
The Yol Cantonment based Rising Star Corps of the Indian
Army celebrated its 11th Raising Day with great fervour and gaiety.
A series of events were organised to commemorate the occasion.
The celebrations commenced with a Trekking Expedition to the
lofty 15000 ft high Indrahar Pass in the mighty Dhauladhar Ranges.
This was followed by a Blood Donation Camp organised in coordination with the Armed Forces Transfusion Centre, New Delhi. The
overwhelming response saw a record number of over 400 units of
blood being donated by the Army men and their families. The Raising
Day, 27th April, began with tributes being paid by all ranks to the gallant martyrs at the Yol Fort Memorial. The General Officer
Commanding addressed the troops in a Special Sainik Sammelan.
While applauding all ranks for their hard work and devotion, the
General Officer Commanding mentioned that the Corps in its ten
years of existence, has marched from strength to strength and acquitted itself commendably in the sensitive Jammu region. Certificates of
Excellence were awarded by the General Officer Commanding to
achievers for distinguished performance over the last year.
Youth potential of Northeast
under-utilized: Dr Jitendra
Speaking at “Aarohan-2015”
student festival here today organized by Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in
collaboration with the Skills
Institute of Technology and
Management, Union Minister of
State (Independent Charge) for
Development of North-Eastern
Region (DoNER), MoS PMO,
Personnel, Public Grievances,
Pensions, Atomic Energy and
Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh observed that the youth potential of
Northeast has remained hugely
under-utilized, both because
lack of exposure of Northeast to
the outside world as well as lack
of awareness among the people
outside Northeast about the multifaceted talent and aptitude of
MLA Jammu East,
Rajesh Gupta and
Soujanaya Sharma (KAS),
Commissioner JMC had on
spot assessment of sanitation drive which is started
by Corporation a few days
ago in the areas of Quasim
Nagar & Chand Nagar
falling in ward No. 19. Both
MLA Jammu East and
Commissioner, JMC were of
the opinion that the sanitation drive shall remain inforce for another few days,
so that the area is completely cleaned and the heaps of
the garbage accumulated
across the roads and drains
shall be given due consideration being low lying area.
On the occasion
Commissioner instructed
the concerned Executive
Engineer and Municipal
Veterinary Officer (Zonal
Officer-II ) to give due consideration for repair of
Nallah passing through
Quasim Nagar, besides sanitation of the area as well as
installation of street lights
in the area at an appropriate
place and placement of two
garbage containers for collection of garbage.
Further, it was resolved
Srinagar, April 27:
The Minister for Education, Syed Nayeem Akhtar Andrabi condole
the death of Mudassir Jabbar S/o Baby Yasmeen, who is teaching at
Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Sopore. Mudassir died in a
road accident on April 22, 2015 at Iqbal Market, Sopore. Late Mudassir a
student of 12th class was a meritorious student of St. Joseph School,
Baramulla. Nayeem Akhtar expressed heartfelt grief and sorrow over the
sad demise of student and extended sympathies with the bereaved family
and prayed for the eternal peace to the departed soul. The Minister also
expressed grief over the death of Tabassum Gulzar, 10 who slipped into a
nallah in Wudder Bala Handwara while on her way to school.
the youth from this region.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, one
of the serious problems faced by
Northeast is the mass exodus of
youth occurring partly in search
of higher standard education in
other parts of country and partly
because of lack of avenues of employment. To address both these
issues, the Ministry of DoNER
has undertaken a number of initiatives, including opening up of
hostels for Northeast students in
Delhi and other parts of country,
setting up counseling and coaching centers for the students from
Northeast and establishing
Northeast study cells in some of
the reputed Universities in Delhi
and other places.
On the occasion, Dr. Jitendra
Singh also announced the setting
up of a Skill Development Center
Jammu, April 27:
GOF Staff Reporter
Srinagar, April 27:
Guwahati, April 27:
GOF Staff Reporter
by the DoNER Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Skill
Development and also referred to
the announcement recently
made by him to set up
Brahmaputra Study Center under the auspices of Gauhati
University. The exact format and
the spectrum of research and
study to be undertaken in this
center is being worked out in consultation with scholars and
teachers, he added.
Complimenting ABVP for
having organized this programme, Dr. Jitendra Singh
said, ABVP is among the oldest
and largest student organizations of the country and even
though it was visibly active even
before the independence, its
present format under present
nomenclature came into existence in 1948, which in other
words means that the journey
and growth of ABVP has been
closely in tandem with the journey and growth of independent
India. He particularly congratulated
National
General
Secretary ABVP Sreehari for the
commendable work being done
by him in imparting quality
skills, quality education and
quality cultural ethos to the student community in Northeast.
He assured of all possible support on behalf of the Ministry of
DoNER for any constructive student activities planned for the region by ABVP and other organizations in the future.
Continuing the agitation
against the new recruitment
policy by terming the new recruitment policy as “AntiYouth”,
the
National
Students’ Union of India
(NSUI) Jammu & Kashmir today started signature campaign against the new recruitment policy. The NSUI activists under the leadership of
Neeraj Kundan State president NSUI J&K aggressively
conducted the campaign in
Jammu University campus,
the students participated in
the campaign with enthusiasm and totally opposed the
policy made by J&K govt.
Shahnawaz Choudhary
Pradesh Congress Committee
General Secretary. jammu
and Kashmir also take part in
the campaign and raised
queries on the objectives and
viability of the ordinance envisaging recruitment at district levels on contractual basis for seven years. "The services of persons appointed on
contractual basis under the
new recruitment policy are to
be regularised after putting in
seven years of “satisfactory
service”. This give rise to cor-
ruption at extreme heights."
He added.
Speaking on the occasion
Kundan said NSUI is agreed
by the decision taken by
Governor on returning the ordinance of new recruitment
policy that is made behind
closed doors without any
proper consultations with
youths and all the procedure
for selection process has also
been changed, now District development
Commissioner
(DDC) is authenticated for
new recruitments even for
gazetted posts, new recruit-
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Army
organizes
picnic for
school
children;
conducts
Swachh
Bharat
Campaign
In an effort to integrate the
school children to promote educational interest in the region &
to create an atmosphere of peace
and harmony amongst the children of the region, Rashtriya
Rifles Battalion under Romeo
Force organised a picnic for
school children of village Naili
to War Memorial and Danidhar
Fort Rajouri today.
The visit was organised for
40 students and 04 teacher of various schools of village Naili and
adjoining villages. Students
were first taken to War
Memorial and thereafter a picnic was organised at Danidhar
fort where they enjoyed the scenic beauty of Rajouri town from
a vantage point. The students
were immensely motivated with
JWAM asks NC, Congress, BJP to
stay away from AIIMS, NRP issues
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
unil Dimple president
Jammu
West
Assembly Movement
asked the NC, Congress, BJP to
stay away from the fight for
opening of AIIMS, toll road Tax
NHAI and new recruitment policy issues, as you all are damaging and weakening, the mass
movement of the Jammu region
people. In a press statement issued here today, Dimple said
that the present agitation for
AIIMS, Toll road tax and for the
S
ment policy have caused frustration among the youth and
leave them in lurch as politicisation of jobs will result large
scale corruption and nepotism. He added that instead of
generating employability and
ensures recruitment to large
number of vacancies through
fast track process; the coalition government is “sprinkling salt on the wounds of
stakeholders”. He added that
such policy have made youth
upset to seek job in J&K and
thus they prefer to go outside
the J&K in search of Job thus
withdrawal of the new recruitment policy is mass movement
of the Jammu region people and
these political parties NC,
Congress , BJP only sat on the
hot seat to gain the political
mileage and have no role in
making the issues in mass
movement.
He appealed and all the
People of Jammu region, Bar
Association,
transporters,
Chamber, student’s organization, colleges, schools, people
of all the ten districts of
Jammu region to get ready for
the mass movement.
weakens our state, that is why
NSUI have organised signature campaign against it and
warned government to revoke
it otherwise NSUI will gear up
the agitation state wide and
govt. will be responsible for
further
happening.
Prominent NSUI activists
who played keen role in the
campaign included Sunny
parihar District President
NSUI jammu, Ajay kumar
National Delegate NSUI,
Avijot Singh State Gen secretary ,Nishant Gupta state secretary and others.
the sacrifice of the soldiers and
expressed their enthusiasm to
join Armed Forces to serve the
nation. In an another event,
Rashtriya Rifles Battalion under
Romeo Force organised a
“Swachh Bharat Campaign” in
Govt Middle School, Namblan
today. The aim was to spread
awareness among school children and the villagers to maintain cleanliness in their school,
homes and in the surrounding
rea. The programme was inaugurated by the Principal of Govt
Middle School, Namblan. A lecture was also given by one of the
students regarding the importance of cleanliness in our lives.
The campaign culminated by
cleaning the school and a talk by
the principal of the school,
where he conveyed his gratitude
towards Indian Army for taking
up such initiatives.
Neelam holds introductory meeting with officers
Ramban April 27:
A high level meeting of the
district officers was today held under the chairmanship of Member
Legislative Assembly Ramban
Neelam Kumar Langeh at confer-
ence hall Ramban. District
Development
Commissioner
Ramban Farooq Shah Bukhari
was also present on the occasion.
During the meeting DDC Ramban
apprised the MLA about the
progress in various ongoing devel-
opmental schemes in the district
under District and State plans and
centrally sponsored schemes.
A thorough review of the performance of Education, PHE,
Irrigation, PWD, Health, Social
welfare and all other important
departments was also taken during the meeting. MLA urged all
the officers present in the meeting
to ensure transparency in service
delivery and said that synergy is
vital to remove the bottlenecks
impeding project completion. He
assured that all efforts will be
made for the development of the
area . CPO, DPO, CMO, CEO, ACR
were among others who were
present in the meeting.
Glimpses of Future
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 5
Faculty Promotions in
SMVDU: Major Faculty
Recruitments and Promotions
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Kavinder Gupta stresses
on expediting pace of
development works
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Speaker Legislative Assembly
Kavinder Gupta said that government
is working under a well knit programme to ensure massive development in all sectors adding that people’s cooperation has paramount significance in this regard.
The Speaker stated this during
his
tour
to
Raipur-Satwari,
Belicharana and adjoining areas to assess the pace of projects under execution, here today. Speaker was accompanied by senior officers from various
departments, panchs, sarpanchs besides large number of locals. The
Speaker visited Nikki Tawi area and
reviewed the pace of work on protection bunds. He asked the Irrigation
and Flood Control authorities to expedite the protection works along the
Nikki Tawi to save the precious lives
and property of the local inhabitants.
Describing the quality of work as
an important factor of any project,
Mr. Gupta asked the executing agencies not to compromise in this regard
at any cost and impressed upon them
that the ongoing projects should be
expeditiously completed. Interacting
with the people, Speaker said that
sincere efforts will be initiated to undertake ambitious projects under
PHE, F&C, PDD, R&B, RDD,
Education, Health and other sectors
to provide durable assets to the peo-
ple for fulfilling their developmental
aspirations. He said that the priority
is being accorded to improve road
connectivity to take development at
the doorsteps of people
The people of these areas raised
various issues include regular water
and power supply, upgradation of
PDD infrastructure, adequate ration,
LPG supply, hand pumps, development of community hall at RaipurSatwari, repair of roads, lanes and
drains, widening/construction of culverts, health centre at RaipurSatwari. Gupta gave on spot instructions to the officers of all concerned
departments to address these problems on priority so that the people are
not deprived of basic amenities.
GOF Staff Reporter
Rajouri, April 27:
Terming youth as economic
booster, Member Legislative
Council and State Vice President of
Bhartiya Janta Party Advocate
Vibodh Gupta said called upon
youth of Rajouri Poonch to open
their business units in the area in
order to boost economic standard.
Speaking in inaugural function of Cloth Show Room Krishen
Lal Vimal Kumar Cloth Merchant
at Rajouri, Advocate Vibodh Gupta
while paying tribute to Late
Krishen Lal & Late Vimal Kumar
and termed their contribution for
Rajouri as his historic. Gupta said
both these business tycoons of the
area had also played a vital role for
strengthening BJP in the area and
it is matter of pleasure that highly
educated Sagar Gupta has continued the practice of their father and
fore father and established business Unit in the Rajouri. He appreciated his efforts and termed his
unit as big step towards economic
boost of Rajouri.
Calling upon the youth, Gupta
said that there is need of educated
and talented youths in business
and these youth must come up with
business units. He said that government service is not possible for
all and only government service
cannot satisfy our needs. He said
that there is need to establish factories, industries, nursing homes,
show rooms, cafeterias and hotels
in Rajouri Poonch to boost the
economy which will give returns to
the people of this area. He said
that in near future Mughal Road
will be best road of the state and it
will be used by the tourists but
Rajouri and Poonch people must
establish the business in all sectors with certain standard. “If
tourists will come here, they have
to stay, they have to go for shopping, they need standard hotels,
they require best medicare, they
require tourist guides”, he said
adding that youth must come forward and contribute in making
bright future of Pir Panjal.
Kishtwar April 27:
In a major step towards good
governance and improving delivery of basic services at the
doorstep of common masses,
Minister of State for Revenue
and R&B Sunil Sharma today
launched project MADAD
(Mission Delivery At Doorstep)
during a programme held at
Government High School
Pochhal in Kishtwar. Under the
project, Revenue Department
will provide the PRCs, RBA and
caste certificates at schools.
Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar
Mohammed Javed Khan, ADDC,
ACR, ACD,CEO,Tehsildar
Kishtwar, other senior officers
and prominent citizens were
present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion,
Mr Sunil Sharma said that this
project which is being implemented at pilot basis in
Kishtwar, shall be extended to
whole state. He said that this will
not only revolutionize the whole
working of Revenue Department
but only strengthen the faith of
people in the state institutions.
“The revenue officials will visit
the schools with their records
and then match school record of
children and prepare their certificates. This will ensure greater
transparency in issuance of
these certificates and at the same
society by organizing such seminars in other Colleges. The
Principal Dr. Mohanta and all
faculty members attended the
function. The following students of 3rd Prof. took active
Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal
Singh today expressed grief over the loss of
life and property in the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal and parts of the country. In his condolence message he conveyed
his sympathies to all the bereaved families
who lost their loved ones and prayed for the
peace to the departed souls. He also conveyed his sympathies to the families of
S.Sujan Singh and Parvinder Singh of R.S
Pura who lost their family members and expressed solidarity with them. Dr. Singh said
that people of J&K stand in solidarity with the
victims of the earthquake in their hour of grief.
GOF Staff Reporter
Udhampur, April 27:
In order to provide better governance and to reach out to the people,
Minister of State for Finance and
Information Technology Pawan
Gupta convened a public grievances
redressal
camp
at
Jakhani,
Udhampur, here today.
A large number of people attended the camp and put forth their demands and problems being faced by
them which include electricity & wa-
time the children and their parents will not suffer unnecessarily, "he added. The Minister appreciated the hard work of district administration in making
this project possible and said that
this should now become a model
for whole state. On the occasion,
the Minister distributed 100
PRCs, RBA and Caste certificates
among the school children. Later
Mr Sharma also chaired a meeting at DC Office. MLC Mr.
Firdous Tak DC, ADDC,SP and
senior district officers attended
the meeting. The representatives
of all major political and social
organizations were also present
in the meeting .The participants
highlighted various important
issues being faced by the people.
Most important being the condition of Batote Kishtwar Road,
health, education, shortage of essential commodities and rural
infrastructure. The Minister
gave a patient hearing to all the
grievances and assured that the
developmental needs of the people will be fulfilled on priority.
Pointing towards the damages to
the national highway and other
roads due to recent heavy snowfall and rains, he said that it has
become a challenge and has been
already handed over to National
Highway Development
Corporation. Survey and subsequent mobilization of men and
machinery will be done in a time
A meeting of Rogi Kalyan
of
Government
Samiti
Gandhi
Nagar
Hospital
Jammu was held under the
Chairmanship of Speaker
Legislative
Assembly
Kavinder Gupta. Medical
Superintendent of the Hospital
apprised the Chairman about
the physical and financial
achievements for the year 201415 along with income expenditure report and balance sheet.
The agenda of the meeting
which included various welfare steps for the benefit of patients and also steps to upgrade
the facilities available in the
ter supply, road connectivity to
Sharda mata & Panchayat Thanoa to
Kaldi, tractor road at Hartryan ,
Madrasa upto eighth class, fencing of
graveyards , shed for Janaza-gah, provision of lighting in graveyards, installation of hand pump near Masjid at
Jakhani, construction of lanes in
Jakhani area, posting of Urdu teachers in various schools, relief compensation for crop and land damage due to
heavy rain. Gupta said that he is well
aware with the problems of the people
and assured that their grievances
bound manner. He assured that
new alignment of Sudh Mahadev
Marmat Doda is going to be a reality and lift drinking water
scheme is being augmented,
which can increase its capacity
by 4 lakh gallons per days to improve water supply in the area.
One additional lift will also be
constructed to meet the shortfall
of drinking water. Sharma further said that work on Pakka Dul
Project will start soon. And will
give boost to employment generation in the district .He said new
appointments of doctors and
medical staff is being made in
hospitals and health centres.
DPR of Chanjar Bhanda tunnel
has also been finalized.
hospital were reviewed in detail by the Speaker. The other
members of the committee
who attended the meeting include SE PWD, PDD, PHE, ,
Programme Officers ICDS,
ADMO Jammu, Dy Medical
Superintendent,
Ex
Bansi
Lal,
Corporator
Chairperson NGO Ruchi
Chouhan, besides other attended the meeting. The
Speaker was apprised that
the hospital management is
facing hardships due to lack
of infrastructure in the institution. The speaker assured
that the matter would be discussed at appropriate forum
for early redressal.
Srinagar, April 27:
poor and needy and would leave no
stone unturned to provide assistance in
future adding that civic action plan is a
major step to bridge the gap between
Police and Public. He also stressed upon
the teachers to impart quality education
and inculcate the competitive spirit
among the students to make them responsible citizens. DySP Devinder said
that the only purpose of such programmes is to bring Public closer to the
Police to have a crime free, safe and secure society. ZEO Mahore and members
of PRIs expressed their gratitude to IRP
1st Battalion for organizing the programme for the welfare of the students
of this School. Later refreshment was also distributed among the students.
CPI (M) State Secretary
Ghulam Nabi Malik has asked
the PDP led coalition government to come clean on its
stand on the issue of
Permanent Resident
Certificates PRCs) to be issued
by schools in contravention to
the established norms.
In a press statement issued
here today, Malik has said that
government should explain
why the process of issuing
PRCs has been assigned to
schools which are not mandated to maintain the revenue
records.“There is an established norm of issuing PRCs by
revenue department and if the
government is serious to weed
out an element of corruption involved in this process, it should
introduce a single window system for the same. There is no
need to assign this job to a de-
partment which has nothing to
do with the revenue records,”
Malik said while stressing on
the government to remove the
brewing misgivings about its
decision.
The CPI (M) State
Secretary reiterated its demand that there should be a
thorough enquiry, as has been
demanded by CPI (M) time and
again in the Legislative
Assembly, in complaints regarding issuance of PRCs in
favour of some non locals.
Malik said that the latest controversial intervention from
the government has not only
given credence to such complaints but has added to urgency of CPI (M)’s long pending demand for a thorough
probe. He said that the decision of assigning the process of
issuing PRCs to schools has
caused a lot of apprehensions
in Kashmir. “The government
must abide by the established
would be redressed in a phased manner at the earliest. Gupta informed
that the road connectivity to Sharda
village is likely to be started soon with
an estimated cost of Rs. 3.5 Crore. He
said that government’s priority is to
provide basic facilities like water,
electricity and road connectivity in
the district. He called upon the people
to come forward to avail the benefits of
various income generating schemes of
Agriculture and its allied departments during the Kissan melas to be
held in near future.
held at Samba
Samba, April 27:
To provide better facilities to
the patients at District Hospital
samba, a meeting of Rogi Kalyan
Samiti was held today under the
Chairmanship of MLA, Samba
Devinder Kumar Manyal at
District Hospital Samba. Chief
Medical Officer Samba Rajiv
Sharma,
Medical
Superintendent District Hospital
Samba, Rajinder Samyal, XEN
PDD, AEE PWD, PHE, DSWO,
DHO Samba, members & officers
of different works department also attended the meeting. The
meeting reviewed the progress
achieved on the decisions taken
in the previous meeting.
MLA Samba D.K Manyal
assured the meeting that provision for Laparoscopic Surgery
will soon be made available. He
said blood bank will also be
opened in the hospital building
and assured the meeting that
district hospital will have a
parking area to address the
problem of traffic congestion in
the hospital. It was decided in
the meeting that the district hospital canteen will be outsourced
with better facilities. The decision regarding enhancement of
incentive from Rs 2000/- to Rs
2500/- for part time sanitation
workers was also taken in the
meeting. It was also decided that
the first dose of Anti Rabbies
vaccine shall be issued from the
district hospital. The provision
for two more computers at OPD
registration section will be
made in the hospital to benefit
patients who otherwise have to
wait long in queues. Provision
for water cooler in new IPD will
also be made at an earliest.
Opening of Jan Aushadi Shop,
provision of Emergency medicines, purchase of X ray films
and laboratory reagents were also approved in the meeting.
MLA samba assured that steps
will be taken to generate funding for the welfare of needy patients under Corporate Social
Responsibility.
BJP stand exposed on AIIMS in Jammu: NPP
Urge Governor to dismiss State Govt
Jammu, April 27:
Prof Bhim Singh, Chief
Patron of National Panthers
Party said that the statement
made by the State Minister at
PMO, New Delhi advocating AIIMS in Jammu Pradesh is real
bluff only a repetition of what
Union Finance Minister, Mr.
Arun Jaitley had said in Jammu.
He said how Prime Minister,
Modi shall allow J&K BJP leaders to act one way surviving his
government in Delhi and allow
the BJP ministers surviving
Mufti Sahib in different directions all together. This, he said,
Clear your stand on issue
of PRC's: CPI (M) to Govt
GOF Staff Reporter
participation in the seminar
namely Snowber Aliya, Chetna
Kotwal, Tejaswani Khanna,
Sucheta Sharma, Upasana
Narania, Manju Atri and
Chanderdeep Kour.
Kavinder chairs Rogi Kalyan
Rogi Kalyan
Samiti meeting
Samiti meeting
Jammu, April 27:
Jammu, April 27:
Follow established norms in issuance of State Subject Certificates
Under the Civic Action Programme
IRP 1st Battalion today distributed
school bags, uniforms and other stationery items among seventy eight poor
and orphan students at Government
Middle School Tramla Shajroo, Mahore.
On the occasion, SSP IRP 1st Battalion
TR Katoch was the chief guest. Dy.SP
Devinder
Singh,
ZEO
Mahore,
Headmasters and teachers of various
government schools, members of PRIs
and a large number of local people were
also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Katoch
said that Police under the Civic Action
Programme has always been helping
A function was organized
in JIAR on Topic ‘Sexual
Assault Awareness’. The students of this Institution formed
a Form namely “I Am
Strength” in collaboration
with Swasthvritt Department
under the guidance of Dr.
Jagmeet Kour and Dr. Milan S.
Chouhan. Approx. 300 students
attended the seminar. The students also demonstrated various techniques, to be adopted
by the society in general and
students community specially
to get rid of the social menace.
Speaking on the occasion
Dr. Roop Lal Sharma Chairman
of College congratulated the students for taking this bold step
and advised them to aware the
GOF Staff Reporter
IRP 1st Battalion distributes school
bags, stationery items at Reasi
Reasi, April 27:
Jammu, April 27:
Dy CM grieved over
the death of Nepal
Earthquake victims
Sunil Sharma launches Project MADAD in Kishtwar
GOF Staff Reporter
GOF Staff Reporter
Gupta convenes public grievances
redressal camp at Jakhani
Youth are economic
boosters: Vibodh Gupta
Inaugurates Krishen Lal Vimal
Kumar Show Room in Rajouri
In a consistent effort to enhance the faculty strength
and profile, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University has
made fifteen promotions under CAS, seventeen direct
fresh recruitments of Assistant Professors in areas ranging from Engineering, Sciences and Literature and promoted seven faculty members at Assistant Professor level to Associate Professor level in different Schools of the
University. This promotion is the first ever direct promotion of substantial faculty members of the University
in the open direct recruitment particularly during the
times when country is facing dearth of teachers at
Associate Professor and Professor Level in various
Universities and Institutes. The seven candidates who
have been appointed Associate Professors fulfilled the
norms of UGC and possessed good service record in the
University besides other eligibilities associated with the
promotion which was not a career Advancement
Scheme ( CAS) but a direct recruitment. The selection
procedure was stringent for all candidates where they
had to make presentation of their research work in front
of selection committee comprising of experts from IIT
Delhi , University of Delhi and other universities. As an
outcome of the vision of the Vice Chancellor, Prof.
Sudhir K. Jain, the seven Assistant Professors promoted
to Associate Professors are: Dr. Suparn Sharma, Dr.
AshutoshVashist, Dr. Jyoti Sharma in the College of
Management; Dr. Vandhana Sharma in the School of
Languages and Literature; Dr. VarunTripathi in the
School of Philosophy and Culture; Dr. ShardaPotukuchi
in the School of Biotechnology and Dr. Amit Kant Pandit
in the School of Electronics and Communication
Engineering. In addition to this, the Vice Chancellor has
taken several other initiatives which are yet to fructify
even in premier institutes of the country like
Professional Development Assistance ( PDA) in favour
of each faculty member to the extent of Rs. 50,000/- per
year per faculty members for a block period of three
years upto 1,50,000/- for professional activities. The
University has also started Post Doctoral programmes in various schools. Congratulating all the
newly appointed Associate Professors, the Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Jain said that it is recognition of
their consistent commitment to academics and research which increases manifold with any such further promotion. He advised all to work with more zeal
and commitment to elevate SMVDU to the global level.
JIAR students organize seminar
on ‘Sexual Assault awareness’
norms and regulations in issuance of PRCs through the
revenue department and any
deviation in this regard will be
deemed as a brazen violation
of the established law,” the
CPI (M) State Secretary stated
further. He said that CPI (M)
will fight any attempt or a
move aimed at diluting
Jammu and Kashmir’s State
Subject laws and will safeguard the interests of the state
by not allowing nefarious designs to succeed in this regard.
“The government must shun
its conspicuous silence and
come out in clear terms on the
issue so that the outrage expressed by various sections of
the society is addressed,” the
CPI (M) leader demanded
adding that the government
must ensure that the eligibility of the applicants in their districts of domicile are properly
scrutinized before issuing
them a PRC.
shows the kind of government
which PDP and BJP is running
in J&K. He said Mufti Sahib has
his constituency in Kashmir and
he has to take all unpleasant decisions to promote his party’s interest in Kashmir Valley, is constituency.
Prof Bhim Singh said that
Mr. Modi is a powerful Prime
Minister and he should discipline BJP leaders from J&K
what to speak and what to do. He
suggested to open two AIIMS as
was done in case of Central
Universities. NPP Supremo said
that Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah was
right to put up separate provin-
Guru Ravi Dass Sabha
delegation meets Div
Com Jammu
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
delegation of newly elected team of All Jammu
& Kashmir Guru Ravi Dass Sabha led by State
Gen.Sec. Bahujan Samaj Party Rakesh Wazir
met Divisional Commissioner Jammu Pawan Kotwal and
thanked him for successful conduct of All Jammu &
Kashmir Guru Ravi Sabha elections which were highly
crucial and were held after a long time that too after the directions of the Hon’ble High Court wherein the court had
directed for holding the elections under the supervision of
Divisional Commissioner Jammu.
Piran Ditta newly elected President of the Sabha while
thanking the Divisional Commissioner said that more than
5.00 lac people associated with Sabha are thankful to the
Divisional Commissioner for taking personnel interest in
holding free and fair elections including deputing of all machinery ,observers and above all keeping keen personnel
watch on the election otherwise every efforts was made by
certain people to derail this poll process so that the elections could not be held and if held be not remain fair.
Wazir praised Mr Kotwal for his integrity, honesty,
dedication and said that this is the only reason that he is
posted as Divisional Commissioner for the second time
and his vision & dedication will prove to be an asset for
the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The delegation among
others was comprised of Raj Kumar Raja, Dr Raj Paul
Hans, Darshan Lal Angral, Romesh Hans, Deepak
Magotra, Om Parkash Hans etc.
A
cial directorates in almost all the
departments. The permanent solution to avoid regional conflict
and remove regional discrimination with the people of Ladakh
and the people of Jammu is reorganization of J&K by establishing the state of Jammu Pahari
Pradesh as well as that of
Kashmir Valley which can be
done by urgent amendment in
Article 370 to remove all anomalies to keep people of J&K in
peace, respect and dignity. To
save the state from total anarchy,
the Governor should dismiss the
present government and impose
Governor rule so that free and
fair elections could be held without manipulation of EVMs as it
happened in the last election.
NOTICE
I, Victor TN S/o Sh Yunas
Masih R/o Sambal road near
Sharon public high school,
Udhampur do hereby solemnly
affirm and declare that my name
has been wrongly as Vipan instead of correct name Victor TN
on the school records of my
daughter Isha Victoria student of
class 8th of Little flower Convent
School. Now, I have applied for
correction of the same.
Objection, if any, may convey to
the concerned authorities within
seven from the date of publication of this notice.
NOTICE
I, Darshna Devi W/o Late
Puran Chand R/o Sallian Talab
Udhampur want to correct name
of parentage of my daughter
namely Sonia studying in 6th
Class of Sanmati Vimal Jain
Academy Udhampur which has
been wrongly written as Darshna
(Mother) & Bablu (Father) in her
school record. The actual & correct name of parentage is
Darshna Devi (Mother) & Puran
Chand (Father). Now I am applying for correction of the same.
Objection, if any, may convey to
the concerned authorities within
seven days from the date of publication of this notice.
Glimpses of Future
CYMK
Glimpses of future
Don’t ignore farmers
farmer from Dausa in Rajasthan, he hung himself on April 22,
from a tree at Jantar Mantar where the Aam Aadmi Party was
holding a rally to protest agricultural distress and the land acquisition ordinance. Almost before his dead body was brought down
from the tree, allegations and counter-allegations flew fast and thick.
Although later, Arvind Kejriwal, in an extraordinary act of political
courage, accepted some of the blame, initially the AAP said that the
Delhi Police did not take timely action. It just stood around and
watched while a man was threatening to kill himself. The Delhi Police
is not under the elected government of Delhi, so the onus for the
tragedy fell on the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power at the Centre, to
which the Delhi Police reports. The BJP came up with a more bizarre
accusation. It said that the death of Gajendra was a “conspiracy” by
the AAP to malign the Central government. The Delhi state government has instituted a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The Delhi
Police says this is illegal and will not be able to cooperate with it. In
this major political Mahabharata, Gajendra, and the reason why he
died, has become a forgotten footnote. Gajendra’s death attracted nationwide attention because it happened in the capital in a sensational
manner. However, farmers’ suicides have for quite some time become
the norm. Since 1995, almost 300,000 farmers have committed suicides. The figures have remained consistently alarming since then.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 15,963 farmers
committed suicide in 2010; 14,207 in 2011; 13,754 in 2012 and 11,772 in
2013. Today, 46 farmers commit suicide every day, which means that
one farmer kills himself every 30 minutes. Maharashtra, an otherwise
developed state, has the worst record. Almost one-fourth of all farmer
suicides happen here, and this has consistently been the case for the
last 15 years. This year, 257 farmers have committed suicide in the
period from January to March. The real culprit for this tragic state of
affairs is the institutional neglect of agriculture for decades. Agriculture accounts for over 60 per cent of our workforce, including the
maximum number of the absolutely poor. However, it contributes
less than 15 per cent to the gross domestic product. In fact, the very
structure of our economy is skewed. The service sector, which employs the least number of people, accounts for 56 per cent of our GDP;
industry, which should be providing gainful employment to a very
large segment of the population, has only a 28 per cent share; and,
agriculture, on which the bulk of the population subsists, is at the bottom of the heap. While the economy as a whole has shown sustained
periods of high growth, especially after the reforms of 1991, agriculture has languished for decades, at a national growth average of two
to three per cent. We have the world’s largest endowment of fertile
agricultural land, but our food productivity is very low. China’s rice
yield per hectare is twice that of ours; that of Vietnam and Indonesia
is 50 per cent more. Even a successful farming state like Punjab has
an average rice harvest of only 3.8 tonnes per hectare; the world average is 4.3 tonnes. The crying need for decades now is for a quantum
increase in agricultural productivity through massive investments
and reforms. These include more remunerative prices for farmers,
improved procurement methods, better seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, much wider irrigation reach, credible credit avenues, cold
chains, storage facilities, satellite mapping and research and development inputs. (For instance, Brazil spends 1.7 per cent of its GDP on
agricultural research. What we spend does not even register.) The
blunt charge against the present government is that it has further
marginalised the agriculture and irrigation sectors. Unfortunately,
this appears to be part of a conscious philosophy. Simply stated, this
seeks to concentrate on mechanical GDP growth by pampering the
already privileged, at the cost of the middle class, the poor, the deprived and the marginalised. The rationale is that if the size of the
economic cake grows, largely due to facilitating the corporate sector,
some crumbs will fall by the wayside for the needy as well. How else
can one explain the allocations made in the two Budgets presented
by this government? In his first Budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs 37,880 crore for national highways, and only Rs 550
crore for new schemes in agriculture! Rs 11,635 crore was given to
ports, and only Rs 1,000 crore to irrigation, when 64 per cent of the
agricultural sector is dependent on the vagaries of the monsoon, and
less than one-third of approved projects in irrigation have actually
been implemented! The figures in the latest Budget are not much of
an improvement. Money has largely been set aside for rural credit,
when the reality is that most farmers are committing suicide because
they are already severely indebted. Moreover, the poll promise of
raising the minimum support price (MSP) to 50 per cent over costs
has been forgotten. Urea is in endemic short supply. The recent unseasonal rainfall and hail has destroyed millions of hectares of standing crops. And, the last straw on the proverbial farmer’s back is the
hasty ordinance on the Land Acquisition Bill. The economic vision of
this government is all about industrial corridors, national highways,
bullet trains and smart cities. India needs these things too. But governments cannot pursue such goals in isolation, oblivious to the
needs of another India where suicides are reaching a peak and the
plight of the common man is deteriorating. A right balance between
competing priorities has to be found, and this government has lost
that balance. It will be instructive for the BJP to remember that the
maximum number of farmer suicides — 18,241 — took place in 2004.
That was the same year the party was talking of “India Shining”.
A
JAMMU TUESDAY APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 6
Changed variables, same equation
BY : RAKESH SOOD
he Afghanistan President, Dr. Ashraf
Ghani, will be in India this week, beginning today, on his first official
visit here. There has been speculation
about the fact that he is visiting New Delhi
after having made, ever since assuming office in late September 2014, two visits in the
region, namely to China (October 2014) and
also to Pakistan (November 2014), and then
to the United Kingdom (December 2014),
Saudi Arabia (March 2015), and the United
States (March 2015). Therefore, this delay
sends out its own message about a reprioritisation in Afghanistan’s foreign policy calculus about relations with India. It marks a
sharp contrast to the kind of warmth that
his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, displayed
towards India and the comfort levels that he
enjoyed with the Indian leadership, cutting
across party lines. Afghanistan’s first
Strategic Partnership Agreement was
signed with India in 2011 and was supported across the board in the Afghan Parliament at the time of ratification. While
Dr. Ghani is no stranger to India, this time
around he will be under scrutiny for what
he says about how he visualises IndiaAfghanistan relations and, equally, what
questions he chooses to sidestep. He will do
well to keep in mind that he is engaging
with a new Indian leadership which has
adopted a more robust and active foreign
policy posture and displayed no anxiety
about the fact that he waited for six months
before visiting New Delhi.
TRAJECTORY OF VIOLENCE
Incidentally, Mr. Karzai also had his
share of ups and downs with India. In the
early years, he tried hard to build relations
with Pakistan, confident that the U.S.
would back him in this effort but became
disillusioned when he discovered that it
had no stomach for reining Pakistan in,
T
BY : PARVATHI MENON
n order to save the planet from catastrophic climate change, global temperatures have to stay within a 2°C
threshold. This can be achieved if the 200
top fossil fuel companies wind up operations or shift to alternate renewable fuels.
The campaign is therefore urging organisations to divest from such companies, and
has started by petitioning two of the biggest
philanthropic organisations the Wellcome
Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to do so. The other arm of the campaign is to change readers’ mindsets on the
imminent threat of climate change, by
telling the story more effectively and
through different media. Mr. Rusbridger
spoke to Parvathi Menon in London about
the campaign.
Why the campaign, and why now?
I have had a feeling for a long time that
this is an important story, if not the most
important story of our lives. Climate
change does pose an existential threat to
the species, and we haven’t got long to do
something about it. If we go beyond 2° C [in
global temperatures] then the consequences are really problematic for millions
of people. So if that is right, then it is such
I
an enormous story that you would expect it
to be on the front page every day and it almost never is. I was thinking about what
would I regret not having done as editor
and I wished we had done more on this
story to wake people up. I came back from
Christmas and pulled together a group of
staff. Not just the environmental writers,
but economic, political and culture writers,
graphic design and video people a big group
of about 45 and asked them what they
thought, and there was tremendous enthusiasm to do something. We decided to start
with people we admired the two trusts, because they are in science and health and believe that climate change is a mortal threat.
And because they are progressive and intelligent, we thought they might be up to listening to the argument. Well, that was how
the campaign started, and we decided we
would do reporting as well, because we are
not just a campaign organisation. We will
do it in multiple media, we will get poets
and artists as well as data people, and investigative reporters we will throw everything
at it. And we would try and suggest ways by
which the readers could join in by helping,
signing petitions, lobbying, writing and
putting pressure on their own places of
work.
engage the Taliban in a peace process. Initially, the U.S. was opposed to the idea but
Mr. Karzai went ahead with the setting up
of the High Peace Council in 2010. He persuaded
former
Afghan
President
Burhanuddin Rabbani to chair it. The
Council did not achieve much and the following year, Rabbani was killed in a Taliban suicide attack. Mr. Karzai wanted to
control the peace process, and through the
Council tried to wean away some of the Taliban commanders, but the ISI stranglehold
proved to be too strong. Eventually, when
the U.S. put its weight behind opening the
Taliban office in Doha, Qatar, to promote
reconciliation, it came to the same conclusion and the process has remained stillborn. Unlike his predecessor, Dr. Ghani is
more of a technocrat rather than a politician. As Finance Minister during President
Karzai’s first term, Dr. Ghani conceptualised the National Solidarity Programme ,
a local community-led development programme. Incidentally, this highly successful scheme was ably implemented by
Mohammad Hanif Atmar who is now Dr.
Ghani’s National Security Adviser. Unlike
Mr. Karzai who could spend hours interacting closely with tribal leaders, Dr. Ghani is
more at home with policy wonks, graphs
and power point displays and hardly tolerates dissent. Second, he is a man in a hurry.
He knows that his election was a contested
one. His legitimacy rests on the tenuous
compromise of a National Unity Government, backed by the U.S.’s heavy diplomatic lifting, with presidential candidate
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah reluctantly accepting the newly created post of a Chief Executive Officer. On September 21, 2014, the
Independent Election Commission of
Afghanistan had merely announced the end
of the election process and declared Dr.
Ghani the President but voting results were
withheld with no mention being made
Comrade Yechury, Don Quixote of our times
by : Balbir Punj
he new CPI(M) general secretary
should know that when he rages
against imperialism and foreign capital, to to the youth raised in post-liberalisation India, he looks like the Spanish knight
in Cervantes’ celebrated novel. After being
elected at the Communist Party of India
(Marxist)’s 21st congress to replace the
jaded leadership of Mr Prakash Karat, Mr
Sitaram Yechury, considered to be the
‘good’ communist, honed in the Left politics
of Jawaharlal Nehru University gave the
war cry at a public rally in Visakhapatnam,
Andhra Pradesh. “The ashvamedha yagna
of Modi’s neo-liberalism and communalism
will be stopped by the twins of sickle and hammer”, he declared to great applause from his followers. Sure, Comrade Yechury, there is
nothing wrong in trying. Now, if some running dogs of imperialism and stooges of capitalism compare you to a certain Spanish
knight on a rickety horse, who charged at
the windmill, taking it to be a fortress holding a dame in distress, you shouldn’t mind
such caricature, and charge ahead. After all,
you did declare at the recently-concluded
party conference that “this is the congress
of future, future for our party and our country”. Those who are familiar with Marxist
jargon will recognise that the Leftists invariably describe themselves as ‘the people’. The Chinese communists, the North
Korean communists under one family rule,
and even the American communists, all
claim that they are ‘the people’. Never mind
the fact that the big and powerful ruling the
communist party in China, incarcerated a
blind dissident writer in his house and built
huge walls around it. Or that the so-called
‘People’s Leader’ in Pyongyang reportedly
let loose hungry dogs on his dissident uncle.
In Cambodia, the ‘People’s Ruler’ in the
1970s bludgeoned thousands to death to protect the ‘people’s Government’ from ‘reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries’. ‘The
Party’ is like the Orwellian Big Brother —
it is always right. In India, if you posit to
‘The Party’, how its parliamentary strength
was reduced from 43 MPs in 2005 to 15 MPs
in 2009 to a mere nine MPs in 2014, it will tell
you, in Marxist jargon, that its strength is
not in the number of lawmakers, but in its
T
‘Climate change is the most important story of our lives’
Well, I would just say that we do not want to get drawn into that because if we come out with a position on nuclear power, or whatever
else it is, people will change the debate and say you must prove this
and you must prove that. These are all good debates we have had in
the past, and we can have them in the future. The beauty of what we
are trying to do is to keep it incredibly narrow and it is working.
even after realising that the growing Taliban insurgency had its roots across the
border. The first Presidential election in
Afghanistan in 2004 passed off peacefully
because U.S. President George Bush had
virtually read out the riot act to General
Pervez Musharraf, ensuring Pakistan’s cooperation in controlling the border. But
after October 2005, when the parliamentary
elections were over, it was as if a tap had
been turned on with the number of suicide
attacks and improvised explosive device
(IED) blasts skyrocketing. Between 2001
and October 2005, there had been four suicide attacks in Afghanistan; the figure
jumped to 15 during the last quarter of 2005.
As Gen. Musharraf candidly acknowledged
in an interview a couple of months ago,
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
was supporting the Taliban in its efforts to
destabilise Mr. Karzai’s government. Such
was Gen. Musharraf’s paranoia about
India’s role in Afghanistan that he once told
Mr. Karzai during an official meeting that
India was running more than 25 consulates
in Afghanistan! Gen. Musharraf, and subsequently former Chief of Army Staff Gen.
Ashfaq Kayani, would demand evidence
from Afghanistan every time Mr. Karzai
complained about the activities of the
Quetta and Peshawar shuras or the Haqqani
group (led by Sirajuddin Haqqani); a charade that only ended after Osama bin Laden
was killed in Abbottabad in 2011.
INTERNAL PRESSURES
As violence levels rose in Afghanistan,
so did Western casualties. Gradually, the
nature of the Pakistan Army’s double game
became apparent, but by this time, Western
countries had lost the appetite for their
Afghan engagement and were seeking an
exit. Mr. Karzai foresaw this as early as
2007. He also realised that this would leave
Afghanistan at the mercy of the ISI’s manipulations and concluded that he had to
Is it having the impact you’d hoped for?
What is the response and where is it coming from?
It is having a huge response. I think in
the first month it was the most tweeted
issue anywhere in Britain. A hundred-andeighty thousand people have signed the petition. Six thousand people wrote back and
told us they would like to help. We asked
them to write a letter to Wellcome Board
members, and hundreds of people did that.
The letters have come from all over the
world China, India, America, South America and other European countries. Also, the
people taking part in the talks coming up in
Paris [United Nations Climate Change
Summit to be held this December] have
been in touch saying this is immensely
helpful, because it will raise the profile of
the subject. They are worried that they
would go to the talks with nobody writing
or talking about the subject, and so pressure would not be there on the politicians.
So I am really happy about the way it is
going. What about the two trusts, as well as
the fossil fuel companies that you have
identified for divestment?
Well, they have all engaged, and I am
going to be meeting the chief executive of
Shell soon to talk to him. Wellcome’s position at the moment is that they share the
same anxieties about climate change but
that it is better if they have the money in
these companies so that they can engage
with the issue. We have asked them to show
us how that [investment] is producing any
benefit because lots of people are sceptical
about it. The Gates’ Foundation is broadly
saying that they need to maximise their
revenues. But more and more of our reporting shows that the bulk of the oil companies
and the fossil fuel companies generally are
underperforming. And so you are not losing out by divesting. The argument in the
presence among workers and peasants, the
youth and the students, all of whom support
it. Comrade Yechury, you cannot shut your
eyes to the fact that, from the mid-1990s,
when your illustrious predecessor Harkishan Singh Surjeet was the king-maker, the
CPI(M)’s story has been on downward trajectory. Today, the Marxists have also been
rejected in West Bengal and Kerala, the only
two major States where they had substantial influence until recently. Comrade
Yechury, today your party can’t find a place
in the legislatures of Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra, where it once had great leaders like P Sundarayya and Ravi Narayan
Reddy, and communist SA Dange, respectively. In Punjab, it has not had one eminent
leader after Surjeet. In Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Assam and Gujarat, it is non-existent
for all practical purposes. In Odisha,
Prashant Patnaik is its lone face. In Tamil
Nadu, it’s happy to live off the crumbs that
fall from AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa’s
table. However, one must not hold the
CPI(M)’s past against its present or its future and more so, when a well-spoken, eminent intellectual of the JNU genre, like
Comrade Yechury, has recently replaced
the party’s dyed-in-the-Marxist-wool leader.
The Marxists should have a future their
claim to slay the BJP demon, notwithstanding. The Marxists were with the BJP in getting Rajiv Gandhi to resign from the Prime
Minister’s post and calling for a fresh election in 1989. The two parties also kept the
VP Singh Government in power for as long
as it lasted. In the 1990s, the BJP pushed forward while the Marxists declined. Will
Comrade Yechury and his party leaders
learn from history and let ground realities
determine their revival strategy or will they
go back to deadwood from the 19th century?
The year 1991 saw the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the Fatherland of Communism.
Today, any communist leader from Asia is
an unwelcome guest in Moscow where ‘progressive writers’ once flaunted their awards
from Joseph Stalin. The 1990s also saw Chinese communists invite foreign firms to set
up shop in their home country, while their
Indian comrades denounced foreign capital
and American imperialists alike. Even the
Vietnamese communists, who battled US
forces for decades, are now rolling out the
developing world would be that the disinvestment you are talking about, and a swift
shift to non-conventional sources, could be
devastating in its impact, as it might actually commit a vast section of the population
to very low levels of energy quality and access. As of now solar energy is very expensive,
and people want that subsidies be retained on
fossil fuels for domestic consumption and
agriculture. Do you think your campaign
should factor in these issues?
I think there are always arguments for
not doing it, and there are always arguments about timing, but the status quo at
the moment is not delivering anything, and
I suppose the fear of the rest of the world
about India is that it is going to burn vast
amounts of dirty coal in very inefficient
ways, and that could be really devastating.
So if the rest of the world can persuade
India not to do that, then we have to look at
the issue of the subsidies by which fossil
fuels are supported. You say solar is expensive. But as I understand, the price of solar
for example in China is dropping. So if it is
a price thing then we have to look at the
cost of making renewables especially solar,
which you have a lot of in India. There is
red carpet for the Americans. In India, the
1990s saw the Congress jettisoning Nehruvian socialism and opting for a free market
economy. Over a period of just 10 years,
India went from a country of perpetual
scarcity to relative prosperity. Add another
decade, and food grain production had increased to 200 million tonnes — so much so
that storage of surplus grains had emerged
as a new problem. The days of milk coupons
and scooter quotas had quietly ended. The
Marxists, however, continue to live in the
ghetto of an economic theory that has
passed its expiry date. They still blame
American imperialism for not just letting
young Indians gulp down Coca Cola but also
much else. Indian Marxists have failed to
assess the aspirations of the youth who now
constitute 65 per cent of the total population.
Dange, Sundarayya and also former West
Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu are legendary names but mostly for those born before the 1990s. Yet, at the Visakhapatnam
rally, Comrade Yechury made it a point to
condemn American imperialism. He also
said that the Modi Government’s policy of
neo-liberalism and the red carpet that it had
laid out for foreign capital, was an imperialist conspiracy. Mr Yechury should visit
the American Centre in New Delhi. He will
find hundreds of young men and women
pouring through books, many sitting on the
floor as all the chairs are occupied. These
youngsters are hoping to study in American
universities. Comrade Yechury will also see
such aspirational folks in buses and metro
trains, reading and sharing class notes,
headed for the many private universities
that teach engineering, business management, bio-technology and much else. He can
still talk about imperialist conspiracies and
Marxist theory but few will listen to him. The
new leader should know that when he and his
comrades talk to India’s youth who are aspiring to move from cycles to two wheelers
to four wheelers about launching an assault
on neo-liberalism and imperialism, they
look like the Spanish knight in the celebrated novel of Cervantes. Today, even the
best of students and young professionals in
India are giving up cushy jobs in big firms
to launch their own ventures. They have
private capital-owners risk millions of dollars to back them up.
also the fact that once solar is installed the
ongoing cost is zero. International climate
change negotiations are pegged on the issue
of a fair distribution of the burden of reducing carbon emissions. Developing nations
argue that the developed countries must
take a greater share of that burden, because
they are the primary contributors to the
problem. Does your campaign have a position on this?
No. We think that is very important,
but it is not going to get readers reading
about it. You are not going to get a thousand
readers signing, you know. This is just not
going to do it. Somebody said that we
should have a position on nuclear power.
The trouble is the broader you get, you just
go back to doing environmental coverage. I
have made the campaign very narrow and
focussed. It is about this: we have to stay
within two degrees. If we burn all the coal
in India, for example, we are going to bust
the 2 degrees as 80 per cent of it is unburnable. Therefore, it is overvalued; therefore,
we shouldn’t be in it. It is really a very simple argument. After that you can start arguing about what you have instead [of fossil
fuels.
about the internationally monitored comprehensive audit of all the ballots. Power
sharing between the President and the CEO
has not happened leading to strains within
the political system and delaying cabinet
formation and crucial administrative appointments. This is why both leaders undertook a joint visit to the U.S. last month.
Dr. Ghani also realises that the U.S. is
headed for elections in 2016 and while he
was able to persuade U.S. President Barack
Obama to maintain the current U.S. troop
presence of nearly 10,000 till end-2016, there
is uncertainty about the U.S. and Western
role and commitment, post-2016. Dr. Ghani
is under pressure to conclude a peace
process with the Taliban and get some investment into the Afghan economy so that
economic growth, which has declined from
nine per cent annually, during the last
decade, to two per cent is resumed. He is all
too aware of Pakistan’s ability to play the
role of “spoiler” and has tried hard to start
on a clean slate with Pakistan. To demonstrate his goodwill, he made it a point to call
on Gen. Raheel Sharif at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, in 2014, in a notable
departure from protocol. In December last
year, Latif Mehsud, a senior Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan commander, who was
held in Bagram, Afghanistan, was handed
over to the Pakistani authorities. TTP infiltration across the Durand Line has been
blocked by strengthening Afghan Army deployments in provinces like Kunar and Nuristan. Also, for the first time, six Afghan cadets
are training at the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. But, so far, there is little to
show for it. The Taliban has launched the
spring offensive by declaring its ‘Operation
Azm’. A deadly suicide attack in Jalalabad,
Pakistan, claimed more than 30 civilian
lives on April 18. On April 10, an Afghan
Army outpost in Badakhshan was overrun
by militants who beheaded eight soldiers.
56: Indian politics’
favourite number
BY : ANITA KATYAL
ongress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s
new avatar has been the subject of animated discussions in the party and
media circles since his return from a mysterious sabbatical. His fiery speech at the party’s
“Kisan-Khet-Mazdoor” rally and his subsequent combative interventions in the Lok
Sabha on the agrarian crisis and Net Neutrality came as a pleasant surprise to Congress
cadres who had been bemoaning the fact that
Mr Gandhi was not leading them from the
front. Although it has been widely reported
that the Nehru-Gandhi scion had taken a
break for 56 days for meditation, party insiders are now convinced that he underwent an
intensive training course in leadership and
public speaking from an image consultant
during the two months that he was away.
They base their case on the sudden change in
his body language and the improvement in
the delivery of his speeches. They also point
to his description of the Modi government as
a “suit-boot ki sarkar” and his repartee in the
Lok Sabha last week, insisting that this was
not an off-the-cuff remark but a clear case of
“structured spontaneity”. This has led to
fresh speculation in the Congress about the
identity of his new speech writers and the
person or agency responsible for Mr Gandhi’s
image make-over. The guessing game continues and the 56-inch chest may soon start heaving with anxiety. The maverick Bharatiya
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy is
proving to be quite a handful for his party.
Unhappy that he has not been given any position in the party or the government even a
year after the National Democratic Alliance
came to power, an impatient Mr Swamy is
doing what he is famous for: stirring up trouble for those who no longer enjoy his confidence. Mr Swamy’s latest ploy is to call on
various Union ministers, engage them in a
conversation on policy issues concerning
their ministries, after which he declares that
he would be putting out a press statement
based on this interaction. Defence minister
Manohar Parrikar, known to chat amiably
with all his visitors, recently realised the perils of speaking too freely with Mr Swamy. In
the course of their conversation on the controversial Henderson-Brooks report that
deals with the reasons for India’s defeat
against China in the 1962, Mr Parrikar apparently agreed with Mr Swamy that the report
should be declassified. Mr Swamy promptly
went public with this information, much to
the embarrassment of the government which
has officially declared that it would not be in
national interest to release this document.
Having learnt a bitter lesson, ministers have
now become more circumspect in their meetings with Mr Swamy. But Mr Swamy is also
skilled at fiction. Mum, perhaps then, is the
only word they should utter in his presence.
The ruling BJP and the Opposition may be
locked in confrontation over the controversial land acquisition ordinance but that has
not stopped finance minister Arun Jaitley
from reaching across the political divide to
seek help in forging a consensus on the introduction of the goods and service tax (GST). In
a tactical move, Mr Jaitley appointed Kerala
finance minister K.M. Mani of Kerala Congress as chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on GST as he is
keen that the GST Bill, once passed by Parliament, is rolled out by its deadline in 2016. Mr
Mani has been entrusted with the task of ensuring that all states implement the new tax
regime, an issue that has been hanging fire
since the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was in power. Mr Mani’s
task has been simplified a bit as the BJP-ruled
states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which
had earlier expressed reservations about the
GST, are now on board since their party is in
power and is pushing GST. With the Opposition leader hard at work for him, the finance
minister is of the view that one good turn deserves another.
C
Printed, published and owned by Prem
Nath Sharma, Printed at Glimpses of Future Press, 63 Padha Street, Purani
Mandi, Jammu. Chief Editor Prem Nath
Sharma, Associate Editor : Rajiv
Sharma, Ph. 2546079, Fax 0191-25472420,
RNI
NO.
43798/86,
emails
:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Glimpses of Future
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 7
Judicial Supervision of Graft Cases
Hindering Decision-Making: Arun Jaitley
Agencies
New Delhi, April 27:
he judicial supervision of corruption cases has hindered the
"whole process of economic decision-making" as investigators try to
make a case even in instances of "genuine
error of judgement", Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley today said.
Speaking at the 16th DP Kohli memorial lecture organised by CBI, Mr Jaitley said
that earlier the concept was that investigation was a police function and courts do not
interfere in that. He said courts supervise
the investigation and that puts the investigator on the defensive, who tries to follow a
T
"Golden rule" of making a case against an
accused. If the accused is lucky, he or she
may get a fair trial. This has actually hindered the whole process of economic decision-making," Mr Jaitley said. Several of
the major corruption cases during the previous UPA government were ordered by
Supreme Court and high courts to be
probed by CBI. Supreme Court even monitored the probe in into some cases, like the
one in connection with the 2G case. The
Finance Minister said that officers are reluctant to take decisions as they fear that
they may be hauled up later over the same.
"Once the judiciary became the supervisor of investigation, the investigator was
left with little option, his discretions got
squeezed. And, then, what was to be a rare
exception became a pattern," he said.
Mr Jaitley said that supervisors and
court's judicial supervisors also have an
interest in ensuring that the cases they are
investigating or supervising eventually
get established.
The minister said that in a liberalised
environment,India's potential was not
"eight per cent growth, our potential is
double digit growth" and that there was
hence a need to "revisit" such practices.
While doing so, he added, "we have to
see the global best practices and kind of
bribery laws that are internationally followed". Mr Jaitley said that rather than
taking decisions, officers are playing a
non-committal note and allowing a file to
move so that the eventual decision is not
RS Dy Chairman
raps Jaya Bachchan
Agencies
New Delhi, April 27:
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien today dubbed Bollywood-turned actress and Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan's behaviour as "irresponsible"
when she sought more time for a Shiv Sena member speaking on the agrarian crisis
while sitting. "How can you say that ....It is irresponsible. I have to manage time. There
are other members... We have to take up two bills after the discussion on agrarian crisis," a visibly agitated Kurien remarked.
The remark followed Jaya's request to give more time to Shiv Sena member
Sanjay Raut as he was making some very good points. Kurien had earlier told Raut to
wind up as he had spoken beyond his allotted time. Peeved by Chair's reaction,
Bachchan while sitting on her seat protested, "This is not the way to speak. You cannot
say irresponsible. You please expunge the word irresponsible..," she said, even as Raut
continued to speak for two minutes before he concluded his speech on the issue.
taken by them.
"Get rid of the environment of distrust; bring about an essential distinction
between what I refer to as a trial and error
judgement... on one side and a decision actuated by corrupt motives on the other
side," he said.
The Finance Minister said that decisions taken with a view to forward corrupt
motives deserve to be criminally dealt
with, but not the other categories.
"If the other categories are criminally
dealt with, it will be a deterrant to expeditious and honest economic decision making," MrJaitley said.
On a query referring to vague provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act,
Mr Jaitley said, "This is not my view now.
This was my view even when we were in
the opposition that the overkill coming
from various institutions certainly has not
helped." In response to another question
on overkill starting from political circles,
Mr Jaitley said, "I don't think that the
overkill started with the political circles.
The overkill started out of these imperfections in the system. "The judiciary felt and
I understand there may be some instances
where some cases are not being investigat-
ed propely, we must, therefore, keep an eye
and then evolve this whole
concept of supervising investigations
in a continuing manner," he said. Further
sharing his views on a scenario where "judiciary became the supervisor of investigation", Mr Jaitley said that when something which "was to be a rare exception became a pattern... what was lost out was the
fine distinction... that an investigating
agency must know between investing,
prosecuting and persecuting".
He said that the investigator lost out
the balance of where to stop an investigation. "That is a fine balance he has to maintain. That was the core strength of the
agencies. And I think that balance was lost
out in these extra mechanisms which were
created," the minister said.
"The economic decision will also be
trial and error. It may also involve playing
with the joints. It may be also will involve
an element of risk. Does the 1988 Act, therefore, adequately distinguish between an
act of corruption and an act where a decision-maker makes an honest error. I think
the 1988 Act fails that test," he said.
A woman offers prayers at Indrayani temple, that was damaged in the earthquake,
in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Yemen evacuation operation was
'resounding success': Sushma Swaraj
Agencies
New Delhi, April 27:
The operation to evacuate people from
war-torn Yemen was a "resounding success"
which was acknowledged by the world community, government told Rajya Sabha on
Monday while noting that 1,947 nationals of
48 countries besides 4,741 Indians were rescued safely. Making a suo motu statement,
Union External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj said under the operation 'Raahat',
6,688 people were altogether evacuated from
Yemen by air and sea routes.
"I am glad to inform this august House
that operation 'Raahat' conducted for the
evacuation of Indian nationals from wartorn Yemen has been a resounding success,
well- acknowledged by the international
community. Making a suo motu statement,
Union External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj said under the operation 'Raahat',
6,688 people were altogether evacuated from
Yemen by air and sea routes. "We not only
managed to safely evacuate 4,741 Indians but
also 1,947 foreign nationals from 48 countries
till 18 April under most difficult circumstances," she said. Swaraj said India had re-
ceived formal requests from 33 countries, including some neighbouring and western nations, for assistance in evacuation of their
nationals as the Indian embassy was among
the handful of foreign missions operational
in Sana'a after the airstrikes began.
"We responded positively to these requests to the extent possible based on ground
realities and helped nationals of 48 countries
in evacuation," the Minister said.
India's approach in the evacuation
process has been guided by the spirit of 'vasudev kutumbakam' (the whole world is
one), Swaraj said. While giving details about
the evacuation process and related developments, Swaraj said, "in view of the worsening security situation in Sana'a and after the
successful conclusion of the evacuation
process, we have relocated our Embassy to
Djibouti on April 15."
Sushma said the Indian Embassy would
continue to operate from Djibouti till the situation returns to normal in Yemen.
Smriti Irani Defends Scrapping of
Ramvilas Paswan slams Nitish
FYUP, Rejects Saffronisation Charge Govt for 'sloppiness' in relief work
Agencies
New Delhi:, April 27:
Resource
Human
Development
Minister
Smriti Irani today made a
strong defence of controversial decisions like scrapping
of Delhi University's fouryear undergraduate programme and asking IITs to
seek her ministry's advice on
MoUs, as she rejected the
charge of saffronisation, saying her government was
bound by the Constitution.
Reeling out statistics to
drive home her point that
spending in education during the Narendra Modi government is more than the previous
UPA regime, she attacked the opposition for accusing her of appointing Hindutva scholars to academic bodies, saying many of
them are associated with the Left
and the Congress as well.
Ms Irani's combative response came during a debate on
Demands for Grants for the
Human Resource Development
(HRD) Ministry, in which she singled out Trinamool Congress'
Sugata Bose, drawing sharp reaction from his party members who
demanded an apology which was
outrightly rejected by her.
Taking on Mr Bose and the
Congress' Sushmita Dev for their
claims of appointing people with
'saffron' ideology to the Indian
Council of Historical Research
(ICHR), she said scholars like
Purabi Roy, associated with CPI,
and Sacchidananda Sahai, a close
associate of Congress leader
Santosh Mohan Dev, too were appointed to the body.
Ms Irani said the ministry intervened in Delhi University's decision to introduce a four-year
undergraduate
programme
(FYUP) as the 40-odd courses
were not sanctioned by the
President.
"The programme would have
produced 77,000 students (each
year) with degrees without any
worth. Had they been on the
streets, were we ready to meet
that situation? ... If I have protected their future, why are they
hurt," she asked, taking a dig at
leaders of some opposition leaders. On the charge of saffronisation of education, she said her
government was committed to
spreading education "within the
limits
prescribed
by
the
Constitution".
"The
Prime
Minister had given this
assurance. I am repeating it on the floor of the
House," she said.
to
Referring
Congress leader Shashi
Tharoor's claims that
funds have remained
unspent in the ministry,
she said while in 2013-14,
the utilisation was 92.9
per cent, it had increased to 97.69 per cent
in 2014-15.
to
Responding
charges that government was interfering
with MoUs being signed by institutions like IITs, she wondered
why the UPA government was
silent when the Delhi IIT had
signed an agreement to open a
campus in Mauritius using "taxpayers' money." She only went by
the law passed by Parliament, she
said.
Agencies
Patna, April 27:
Minister
Union
Ramvilas Paswan today
charged the Bihar government with showing "sloppy"
attitude to natural calamities
like storms and earthquakes
saying while the Centre was
time and again promising to
extend all help, the Nitish
Kumar ministry was not utilising it.
"The sloppy attitude of
Bihar government could be
assessed from the fact that it
has neither sent report on the
extent of damage by tropical
storm on April 21 nor on the
earthquake two days ago,"
Paswan, who is President of
Lok Janshakti Party - an ally
of BJP in NDA, told reporters.
Asked if the Centre is
the
recent
considering
calamity in Bihar including
squall in March as national
calamity, Paswan said "it
could be considered only after Bihar government sends
report of damage".
While states like Punjab,
Haryana, Rajasthan and
Uttar Pradesh had sent their
reports long ago on damage to
crops due to adverse weather
condition, Bihar government
had not done so even after
several reminders.
On earthquake that has
rocked Bihar, Paswan said he
had extensively toured different parts of the state after
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi personally telephoned
him.
"During the tour of different
districts
like
Khagaria,
Samastipur,
Araria,
Kisanganj,
Darbhanga, Munger among
others, I talked to district
magistrates and other offi-
cials but they gave me vague
answers on the loss of life and
damage to houses and crops,"
he said. "This evening the
prime minister would be
holding a meeting on quake
in which I'll convey him all
these things," he said.
"While criss-crossing
various parts of the state particularly in rural areas I saw
people taking shelter on
roads and raising hands for
help but there seemed nobody for their help," Paswan
said. "I have received com-
plaints from people in some
places that officials were not
recording the deaths in storm
and quake claiming that
those were natural deaths,"
he said.
"I do not know whether
this sloppiness is due to lack
of command over officers or
bad intention of the state government," the Union Food
Minister alleged.
On Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar extending helping
hand to Nepal devastated by
the earthquake, Paswan took
a potshots at his rival and
said "he should concentrate
on providing succour to sufferers of storm and quake in
Bihar. The Centre is taking
care of Nepal needs."
He said the Bihar government which was providing Rs 4 lakh as compensation to kin of dead in storm
and quake should provide Rs
2 lakh to injured.
BJP leader calls for UP
Woman held for torturing
Mahotsav to replace Saifai Mahotsav minor domestic help
Agencies
Lucknow, Apr 27:
A senior BJP leader on Monday said an 'Uttar
Pradesh Mahotsav' should be held in place of
'Saifai Mahotsav', the annual event held in the native village of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
"The chief minister and his family hold Saifai
Mahotsav every year in their native village but
have no interest in holding UP Mahotsav for the entire state's cultural, social and industrial development", said General Secretary of BJP's Mumbai
unit Amarjit Misra. Misra also met Governor Ram
Naik earlier today and submitted a memorandum
in this regard. "Though the natives UP in Mumbai
and other places celebrate foundation day of the
state, the chief minister took no initiative in this direction despite the Governor too expressing his desire for the same", he said.
Misra has been organising UP foundation day
in Mumbai under the banner of social-cultural
group 'Abhiyan' since the past 27 years.
"If such a function is held in the state it will
provide an opportunity to the people of the state residing in other states to get together here for a day
and also contribute to its development," he said.
,To a question on the state of north Indians in
Maharashtra, he said, in the past some organisations used to harass them at the instigation of the
then Congress-NCP government but the new BJPled government was safeguarding their interests.
BJP leader calls for UP Mahotsav to replace
Saifai Mahotsav
Agencies
Mumbai, April 27:
A 58-year-old woman
was arrested for allegedly
torturing a minor girl
whom she had employed as
domestic help, police said
today. Acting on a tip-off
that a nine-year-old girl
was being tortured by a
family
residing
at
Pataliputra Nagar in suburban Oshiwara, the police swung into action and
rescued her on Saturday.
Subsequently,
the
woman who had employed
her as maid was arrested,
senior police inspector
Subhash Vele said.
"During preliminary
investigation, we found
bruises on the girl's body.
She has now been sent to
Dongri children's rehabilitation home," Vele said.
The accused woman's
daughter, who also allegedly tortured the minor girl,
is at large, he said, adding
that a search was on for
her.
The woman had
brought the minor girl
from her native place in
Jharkhand 3-4 months ago.
She used to torture her frequently and hit her with a
rolling pin used in kitchen.
"The woman is in police custody and we are trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the girl's parents
as she is unable to give any
concrete
information,"
said Vele.
The accused has been
booked under sections 323
(voluntarily causing hurt),
324, 334, 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a
slave) and 374 (unlawful
compulsory labour), police
added.
IOA officials tell Thomas Bach their opposition to Sports Bill
Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 27:
Miffed at the "interference" of
Sports Ministry in its affairs, Indian
Olympic Association today told the
visiting International Olympic
Committee President Thomas Bach
to convey to the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi its opposition to the
Sports Code of the government in its
current form.
Bach, visiting the country for
the first time since being elected as
IOC chief in 2013, had a meeting with
top IOA members at a city hotel that
lasted an hour and he will meet the
Prime Minister later in the day.
The IOC chief also had an hourlong meeting with sports minister
Sarbananda Sonowal at the same hotel. Sonowal was assisted by Sports
Secretary Ajit Sharan and Sports
Authority of India Director General
Injeti Srinivas. Former IOA
Secretary General and Honorary
IOC member Randhir Singh also attended both the meetings. Later,
Sonowal hosted a lunch for the visiting dignitary which was attended by
top IOA and sports ministry officials,
Minister of State Information and
Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh
Rathore, besides Sonowal. Abhay
Singh Chautala, who served as president of the IOA during the 14-month
suspension from the IOC, told reporters after the meeting that the
members have told Bach to convey to
the Prime Minister that they would
oppose the Sports Bill as it "interferes" with the autonomy of the IOA.
"For some time, there has been this
issue of the implementation of the
Sports Bill. The earlier Congress
government had tried to implement
this Sports Bill and the current BJP
government is also saying that it will
implement the Bill," Chautala, also
an MLA of the Indian National Lok
Dal
in
Haryana
Legislative
Assembly, said.
"The IOA members have requested the IOC President to convey
to the Prime Minister when he meets
him our feeling regarding the Sports
Bill. There has been interference in
the affairs of IOA from the Sports
Ministry which is undermining the
autonomy of the IOA under the
Olympic Charter. This will harm
Indian sports," Chautala, now a
Haryana Olympic Association official, said. The IOA's objection to the
Sports Code centers around two major issues -- age limit of 70 of the office
bearers of the IOA and the cutting into size the importance of the state
units of the IOA. There was speculation that India would express its willingness to bid for 2024 Olympic
Games or for a later date but none of
the officials as well as Sonowal could
throw any light on that issue.
"We welcomed Mr Bach and his
team to the country. We discussed
how sports in India can be progressed further," Sonowal said.
Asked if there was any discus-
sion on India's likely bid for the 2024
Olympic Games, Sonowal simply
said, "We had a discussion about the
development of sports in India. That
is all."
Chautala said that IOA would
support the government if it decides
to bid for 2024 Olympics or at a later
date.
Top officials of the IOA said that
Bach expressed happiness on India
coming out of the suspension and also praised them for amending the
constitution that paved the way for
revocation of the ban in February
last year. "Mr Bach expressed happiness that the suspension has been
lifted and the IOA can now work for
the development of Indian sports. He
also congratulated us for amending
the constitution. He said our constitution is now a very good and a modern document," an IOA vice presi-
dent said.
IOC said that Bach was visiting
India to discus with the Prime
Minister and the sports authorities
"the development of sport in India
and the role that sport and the
Olympic Games can have within the
Indian society".
"He (Bach) is visiting India by
invitation of the Prime Minister
Narendra Damodardas Modi and the
Indian Olympic Association. India
has an important role to play within
the Olympic Movement. The IOC
President intends to meet the Prime
Minister and the sporting authorities in order to discuss the development of sport in India and the role
that sport and the Olympic Games
can have within the Indian society,"
IOC Media Relations Manager
Sandrine Tonge said on a query.
Lt Gen Sahni witnesses
exercise Akraman-II
Agencies
Rajasthan, April 27:
South Western Army Commander Lt
Gen Arun Kumar Sahni today witnessed
army exercise 'Akraman-II' being conducted by Chetak Corps of the Sapta Shakti
Command in Rajasthan. The exercise is
aimed at making the force more agile, versatile, lethal, networked and capable of
achieving a decisive victory in war, said Lt
Gen Sahni, the Army Commander of the
Sapta Shakti Command. An intense battlefield scenario simulated with manouevering columns of army tanks and hovering
helicopters in soaring temperatures in the
desert terrain of northern Rajasthan, an official release said. The Army Commander
along with Lieutenant General PM Hariz,
General Officer Commanding, Chetak
Corps and other senior officers witnessed
the mechanised predominant battle manoeuvres in which tanks, infantry combat
vehicles, long- range artillery gun, air defence weapon system, electronic warfare
system and surveillance equipment carried
out battle drills, it said. The manoeuvres rehearsed and practised will allow the Army
formations to break through multiple obstacles within a restricted time frame. The
battlefield transparency and operational
plans based on real-time situational awareness was enhanced using intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) inputs
from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and
sensors during the exercise, the release
said.
250 people from
Gujarat return home
from quake-hit Nepal
Agencies
Ahmedabad, April 27:
As many as 250 people from Gujarat,
out of the nearly 550 state residents stranded in quake-hit Nepal, have returned home
safely, a senior official said today. "Nearly
250 people from Gujarat have so far returned to the state from quake-hit Nepal.
Around 35 people arrived at the
Ahmedabad airport from Delhi this afternoon through a special flight. Apart from
them, many others have returned safely
during the last 24 hours through flights and
buses," Gujarat Relief Commissioner D N
Pandey said. The Gujarat government is coordinating with the Centre and airport authorities to facilitate return of people from
the state stuck in Nepal and has made
arrangements for their stay in the national
capital. "We are in contact with the Centre
for the safe evacuation of all Gujaratis from
Nepal. Efforts are on to bring back the remaining people using special flights and
buses," said Pandey. Upon arrival here today, the passengers shared their experience
with media about Nepal during earthquake. "We went to Nepal through a tour
operator. As soon as we came out of Lord
Pashupatinath temple, the earthquake
struck. We saw many buildings collapse in
front of our eyes. Though the main dome of
temple was also swaying, it survived the
quake. We somehow managed to escape and
reach safely here," said Hansaben Patel,
who was among the 35-odd passengers arriving here today.
Quake rescue: SP
leader talks about
party colleague's
nephews
Agencies
New Delhi, April 27:
Amid massive efforts to save lives in
quake-ravaged Nepal in adverse conditions, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal
Yadav today raised in Rajya Sabha the issue
of nephews of his party colleague Naresh
Agrawal being stranded there, alleging that
Indian Embassy was not helpful.
Responding to this, External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj said the members
should not "increase pressure" on Indian
Embassy personnel in Kathmandu as they
are already working in "adverse circumstances". During an impromptu discussion
on the tragedy that struck Nepal, Yadav referred to two nephews of Agrawal and how
Indian Embassy handled calls regarding
their evacuation. "
What the government is doing (in
Nepal) is very correct but more needs to be
done. While the government is sensitive,
the Embassy is insensitive," he said. He
said two nephews of Agarwal were stranded
there and External Affairs Minister was
spoken to. "Sushma Swaraj was spoken to
yesterday and we got phone calls made
twice. But it was of no effect on the
Embassy," he said. He demanded that the
embassy should be sensitized. Hours later,
Swaraj said Agrawal's relatives had been
evacuated. "The situation over there (in
Nepal) needs to be understood. There is a
long queue over there. 10,000-20,000 people
are stranded. ...In adverse circumstances,
our Embassy officials are working. Let us
not increase their pressure."
GLIMPSES OF FUTURE
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL, 28, 2015, PAGE 8
GLOBAL NEWS
Japanese PM , US President eye
strategic trade deal at White House
Washington, April 27
President Barack Obama will seek to
encourage the emergence of a more assertive Japan and close in on a major
Pacific trade deal when he hosts Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House
Tuesday. Abe will get treatment normally
reserved for royalty or heads of state, including a 300-guest White House state dinner in his honor, underscoring the renewed relevance of an alliance forged in
the ashes of World War II.
The Japanese premier lands in
Washington buttressed by victory in local
elections that were seen as a referendum
on his administration.
The White House will be keen to capitalize on an emboldened Abe`s desire to
put Japan back at the center of power in
Asia, as China flexes its political and economic muscle.
Mindful of China`s rising influence,
the Obama administration launched a
"pivot to Asia" strategy, aggressively
courting several regional economic powers and nurturing a network of alliances.
The visit comes "in the context of our
broader efforts to continue to rebalance
the Asia-Pacific region," said top Obama
foreign policy aide Ben Rhodes.
Abe has backed a bigger role for
Japan`s security forces, including a deal
expected Monday that could allow personnel to come to the aid of US troops in the
event of a skirmish or attack.
Japan`s military was scrapped after
the end of the war, and pacifism is enshrined in the country`s constitution,
which Abe has sought to reinterpret.
"We very much welcome the fact that
Japan is looking to play a more constructive role in promoting peace and stability
in the broader Asia-Pacific region," said
Rhodes. "We believe that that dovetails
very nicely with the US rebalance."
Part of that rebalance is securing a
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that
draws in 12 countries -- including Japan
and the United States -- many of which are
keen to counter Beijing`s increasingly
strong centripetal pull.
"The negotiations have been going on
for some time," said Japanese
Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae, saying that
Obama and Abe would hail the "major
progress" seen. The visit, he said, would
Sri Lanka journalists in exile in Nepal to return
Colombo, April 27
Sri Lankan journalists who fled
the country for safety reasons and
now living in exile in Nepal will be allowed to return, foreign minister
Mangala Samaraweera told the parliament on Monday.
He was responding to a query
from opposition legislator Anura
Kumara Dissanayake.
Mr. Dissanayake said the Sri
Lankan Ambassador in Nepal had
refused to facilitate the evacuation of
Lankan journalists in the country.
“We know that journalists had
to flee the country for safety in the recent years. They were scared of
white vans chasing them,” Mr.
Dissanayake said.
Mr. Samaraweera told parliament that journalists who are currently in hiding in Nepal would be allowed to return to Sri Lanka after
Saturday’s devastating earthquake.
However, the minister did not
give an exact figure as to how many
journalists might be in hiding in
Nepal.
During the reign of former
President Mahinda Rajapaksa several journalists had fled the country as
Sri Lanka fell in the press freedom
index.
Journalists had also complained
of armed groups coming in white
coloured vans to abduct them.
First malaria vaccine
likely by October:
Scientists
London, April 27 :
The first malaria vaccine
candidate to reach phase-3 of
clinical testing was found to
partially protect children
against the disease up to four
years after vaccination and
may be available by as early as
October this year, scientists reported.
The results suggest that
vaccine
candidate
the
RTS,S/AS01 could prevent a
substantial number of cases of
clinical malaria, especially in
areas of high transmission.
"The European Medicines
Agency (EMA) will assess the
quality, safety, and efficacy of
the vaccine based on these final
data," said corresponding author Brian Greenwood, professor at the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
in Britain. "If the EMA gives a
favourable opinion, WHO
(World Health Organization)
could recommend the use of
RTS,S/AS01 as early as
October this year. If licensed,
RTS,S/AS01 would be the first
human
vaccine
licensed
against a parasitic disease,"
Greenwood added.
The findings revealed that
vaccine efficacy against clinical and severe malaria was better in children than in young
infants, but waned over time in
both groups.
However, protection was
prolonged by a booster dose, increasing the average number of
cases prevented in both children and young infants.
"Despite the falling efficacy over time, there is still a
clear
benefit
from
RTS,S/AS01," Greenwood said.
"An average 1,363 cases of
clinical malaria were prevented over four years of follow-up
for every 1,000 children vaccinated, and 1,774 cases in those
who also received a booster
shot. Over three years of followup, an average 558 cases were
averted for every 1,000 infants
vaccinated, and 983 cases in
those also given a booster
dose." "Given that there were
an estimated 198 million malaria cases in 2013, this level of efficacy potentially translates into
millions of cases of malaria in
children being prevented,"
Greenwood said.
be "epoch-making."Both Tokyo and the
White House had hoped that Obama
would have authority from Congress to
fast track a deal before Abe`s visit, allowing a more definitive announcement on
Tuesday.
But political wrangling on Capitol
Hill means that may not come before May.
Japan sees the authority as a prerequisite to conclude talks.
Obama has faced critics within his
own party who believe the deal would allow American jobs to be shipped overseas.
In the last week Obama has begun
pushing back hard on that notion, insisting the deal would level the playing field
for US workers. "I understand why a lot of
people are skeptical of trade deals. Past
deals didn`t always live up to the hype," he
said in his latest weekly address to the nation.
"We have lessons to learn from the
past -- and we have learned them. But trying to stop a global economy at our shores
isn`t one of those lessons." Negotiators are
still working on tough issues linked to automobiles and agriculture, but with
Obama looking for a bipartisan trade victory and Abe keen to bolster his domestic
economic reforms, a deal seems likely.
"There is a very, very strong will from
both parties that we would like to reach an
agreement," said ambassador Sasae.
South Korea's Prime
Minister steps down over
bribery scandal
SEOUL, April 27
South Korea’s president has accepted the resignation of her prime minister on account of a bribery
scandal. Prime Minster Lee Wan Koo offered to
quit last week, two months after taking the country’s second highest post. He was at the heart of a
corruption scandal involving a dead businessman
and other high-profile figures. Businessman Sung
Wan-jong said before committing suicide this
month that he gave 30 million won ($27,390) to Lee in
2013. Lee has denied the allegation. President Park
Geun-hye’s office said on Monday she accepted
Lee’s resignation but gave no further details. Lee’s
office confirmed his departure, saying he left his office after making a farewell speech. Executive power in South Korea is concentrated in the president,
but the prime minister leads the government if the
president becomes incapacitated.
Hunter King poses in the pressroom with the
award for outstanding younger actress in a drama
series at the 42nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards at
Warner Bros. Studios, in Burbank, Calif.
App to help boozers
fight the urge to
drink
Melbourne, April 27
A smartphone app has
been designed to help people reduce their dependence on alcohol. The app diagnoses your
drinking habits and measures
how healthy, risky or dangerous they may be. It then offers a
range of challenges to complete
instead of drinking such as
sober karaoke, drink-free dating and being the designated
driver on nights out, Herald
Sun reported. Chris Raine of
the Australia-based not-forprofit movement Hello Sunday
Morning said the new app
pushed education into the tech
space and empowered people to
seek simple, fast advice at the
touch of their smartphone.
"It's really exciting. There
is a big need for it in Australia
and around the world to help
people change their drinking
habits," Raine was quoted as
saying. "It's an easy way to help
people," he added.
The app, powered by
Vodafone and funded by the
Abbott government, also allows users to see how many other people in their pub, club or
local area are going booze-free
and completing the same challenges. Australasian College
for Emergency Medicine chair
Diana Egerton-Warburton predicted the app would be a success because it helped build
awareness of people's own
Assistant
Health
habits.
Minister Fiona Nash said the
app would appeal to tech-savvy
Australians, who could use
their phone to monitor their
health.
Week of Fighting in Iraq's Five mn pound UK aid for quake-hit Nepal Pak Forces Kill Three
Wanted Taliban Terrorists
Ramadi Kills 30 Police
London, April 27
Baghdad | AFP | Apr 27
A week of heavy fighting between
security forces and the Islamic State jihadist group in the Ramadi area of
Anbar province killed 30 police, a top officer said today. "The city of Ramadi witnessed heavy confrontations and fighting last week between security forces"
and IS, Anbar police chief Staff Major
General Kadhim al-Fahdawi said, putting the toll at 30 police killed and 100
wounded. Parts of the capital of Anbar
province have been out of government
control since early 2014, and IS seized
more territory in the Ramadi area this
month. Major attacks also hit other areas of Anbar last week, including three
suicide bombings claimed by IS targeting the Iraqi side of the Trebil border
crossing with Jordan on Saturday that
officials said killed seven people. And 13
soldiers, among them two senior officers, were killed in a bombing and clashes east of Ramadi on Friday, Defence
Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said. Obeidi
yesterday rejected reports that more
than 100 soldiers were killed in the violence, which was originally said to have
taken place in the Nadhim al-Tharthar
area, but which he said was actually 30
kilometres to the south. Rumours of the
massive death toll sparked calls for a
demonstration in Baghdad and for
Obeidi to be questioned by parliament or
resign. Iraqi security forces control
pockets of territory in Anbar, a vast
desert province that stretches from the
borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi
Arabia to the western approaches to
Baghdad. But much of the province is
held by IS, which spearheaded an offensive last June that overran swathes of
territory north and west of Baghdad.
As Nuclear Powers Meet, NYC
Rally Demands End to Weapons
New York , Apr 27
Global activists have presented 8 million petitions to the
UN disarmament chief demanding a world free of nuclear
weapons, kicking off a conference by world powers to review
progress toward eventually achieving total disarmament.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's foreign minister are both expected to speak at the conference Monday amid
intense interest in the fate of negotiations over Iran's nuclear
program. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT,
Review Conference happens every five years, and experts have
warned that little progress is expected this time, especially with
relations cool between the two largest nuclear powers, Russia
and the United States. The more than a thousand demonstrators
demanded that the world's nine nuclear-armed countries do far
more toward cutting stockpiles. Many protesters were from
Japan, the only country ever hit by a nuclear attack. Fragile survivors of the US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years
ago led the way in wheelchairs. "I hope we don't have to have the
NPT five years from now!" said 83-year-old Hiroshima survivor
Setsuko Thurlow. The UN disarmament chief, Angela Kane,
stood by the wall of boxes of petitions and told the crowd that receiving the millions of names was "very humbling." She said she
had signed one of the petitions herself when she was in Japan.
Kane said she spoke Friday with UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and told the crowd, "He's with you." As the march
made its way uptown past the Manhattan brunch crowd, some
bystanders showed little grasp of the number of nuclear
weapons remaining around the world today.
Sri Lankan Prez Moves
Constitution Amendment Bill
Colombo | Apr 27
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today presented a bill in parliament for a key amendment to the Constitution
that seeks to dilute powers of the president. The 19A amendment was introduced after last week's aborted attempt caused
due to disruption by supporters of former president Mahinda
Rajapaksa. "It has always been my desire to prune presidential
powers. You all will agree that I have been very generous,"
Sirisena told the House. S
irisena's opposition coalition had pledged to do away with
presidential authority to make parliament more powerful, as
their main plank in the January 8 presidential election which
resulted in a stunning defeat for Rajapaksa. Sirisena described
the amendment as a historic occasion where all legislators are
presented with the first such opportunity in 37 years. Sri Lanka
switched to an executive president-headed government in 1978
from a Westminster-style system.
The United Kingdom has given 5 million pounds to help people affected by the
devastating Nepal earthquake which has
killed more than 3,200 people, the government said on Monday.
Already three million pounds were
released to address immediate needs and
another 2 million pounds would be given
to the Red Cross, the government said.
Prime Minister David Cameron
tweeted that a UK search and rescue team
was dispatched on Sunday night with
RAF aircraft being sent on Monday.
A number of Britons have been
caught up in Saturday’s earthquake and
the powerful aftershock felt on Sunday.
At least 18 people have been killed in
avalanches on Mount Everest.
Climbers and their guides have been
cut off from Everest’s devastated base
camp, unable to come down because
climbing ropes and ladders have been
swept away.
PUBLIC UTILITY NUMBERS
INDIAN AIRLINES
City Office
Airport
P.H.E. Station
Bakshi Nagar
Gandhi Nagar
Company Bagh
Telecom Department
Directory Enquiry
Fault Repair
Trunk Booking
Trunk Assistant
TAX Code NSD
Phonogram
International Booking
Fax Service
2542735
2546086
2430449
2543537
2430786
2542582
197
198
1580
1581
1583
1585
1586
2544895
2540652
Fax Service, Gn Nagar 2431750
Billing Complaint
2543896
2548415
Fault Repair Service
Janipur
Kachi Chawani
Postal Services
H.P.O. City
Gandhi Nagar
Fire Services
Control Room
City
Power Houses
Gandhi Nagar
Nanak Nagar
Satwari Cantt.
Canal Road
Janipur
Parade
198
25432198
198
25442198
2543606
2573604
2435863
101
2544263
2430180
2430776
2452813
2554147
2533828
2542289
Hospitals & Nursing Home
ASCOMS, Sidhra
2662536
Ayurvedic College
C.D. Hospital
SMGS
GMC, Bakshi Nagar
GMC, Gandhi Nagar
Para Physycatric Hos.
Chest Disease Hos.
Govt. Dental Hospital
Guru Nanak Missionary
Emergency
Blood Bank
Ambulances
Maddan Hospital
Medicare
Triveni Nursing Home
Suvidha Nursing Home
Al. Firdous Nursing Home
Astha Nursing Home
Bee Enn Charitable Trust
Chopra Nursing Home
Harbans Singh Mem.
Jeevan Jyoti
M Zulqernain
Lahore | Apr 27
UK Foreign Secretary Philip
Hammond said “we would expect there to
be several hundred British nationals in
Nepal” but there were currently no reports of any Britons killed or injured.
“British embassy staffs have helped
Help line
2662539
2543661
2577064
2548012
2547635
2584290
2436041
2577444
2560194
2544670
2435564
2549669
2547637
2584225
2575364
2456727
2435070
2452664
2555965
2545050
2576707
2505310
2573580
2541952
2576985
Yudhvir Nursing Home 2547821
Mediaid Nursing Home 2466744
Sita Nursing Home
Vibhuti Nursing Home
2435007
2547969
Rameshwar Nursing Home 2580601
Bee Enn Chariatable
Maharishi Dayanand
over 200 British nationals who’ve presented at the embassy directly,” he said.
A British couple on their honeymoon
are among a number of Britons caught up
in the earthquake and subsequent avalanches in the Everest area.
2555631
2545225
Jammu Municipal Corporation
Jn. Lines
Administration Officer
Health Officer
Executive Engineer
Veterinary Officer
2578503
2542192
2547440
9419150429
9419102797
DC OFFICE
2544366
<None>
Arrival
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RAILWAY TIMING
TR. No ARRIVAL DAYS TRAIN NAME DESTINATION
9225
9226
2425
2426
4645
4646
2413
2414
3151
3152
4033
4034
1077
1078
2331
04-20
22-05
05-30
20-10
05-55
21-00
08-10
18-15
09-30
19-15
10-25
16-15
08-55
21-45
12-45
Departure 2332
22-45
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
5653
5654
2587
2588
5097
5098
5651
5652
6317
6318
6031
12-45
22-45
12-45
22-45
12-45
22-45
12-45
22-45
13-50
23-55
13-50
Departure 6032
23-55
Arrival
6687
Departure 6688
Arrival
2471
13-50
23-55
15-45
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Sat
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
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TUE
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Fri,
Sat
Tue,
Fri,
Sat
Thur
Thur
Mon
Tue
Fri, Sat
BTI JAT EXP
JAT ADI EXP
Rajdhani EXP
Rajdhani EXP
Shalimar EXP
Shalimar EXP
Pooja EXP
Pooja EXP
Sealdah EXP
Sealdah EXP
Jammu Mail
Jammu Mail
Jehlum EXP
Jehlum EXP
Himgiri EXP
BTI to Jammu
JAT to BTI
NEW DELHI
Jammu to New Delhi
New Delhli to Jammu
Jammu to New Delhi
Jaipur to Jammu
Jammu to Jaipur
Sealdah to Jammu
Jammu to Sealdah
Delhi to Jammu
Jammu to Delhi
Pune to Jammu
Jammu to Pune
Howrah to Jammu
Himgiri EXP
Jammu to Howrah
GHY EXP
GHY EXP
GKP EXP
GKP EXP
Baruni EXP
Baruni EXP
Lohit EXP
Lohit EXP
Himsagar EXP
Himsagar EXP
Madras EXP
GHY to Jammu
Jammu to GHY
GKP to Jammu
Jammu to GKP
Baroni to Jammu
Jammu to Baroni
Guwhati to Jammu
Jammu to Guwhati
Cape to Jammu
Jammu to Cape
Madras to Jammu
Madras EXP
Jammu to Madras
Navyug EXP
Navyug EXP
Saraj EXP
INDIAN AIRLINES FLIGHT TIMINGS
FLIGHT NO. & SCHEDULE DEPARTURE
IC-821 AB 320 Daily
11.30 Delhi a.m
01.20 Jammu p.m
IC-822 AB-320 Daily
2.35 Srinagar p.m
3.50 Jammu p.m
IC-425 B-737 (Mon. & Fri.) 07.40 Leh a.m
9.20 Jammu a.m
Three wanted Taliban terrorists, including one militant involved in the attack on Sri Lankan Cricket team in Lahore, were
killed today by security forces during an operation near here, officials said.
Crime Investigation Agency chief Umer Virk said that on
an intelligence tip off a police force comprising commandos
raided terrorists' hideout in Bhaghwanpura area, a thickly populated locality near Wagah Border in wee hours of today.
"When the forces surrounded the house, the terrorists started firing. The commandos returned the fire, killing three terrorists," he said.
Virk said the terrorists have been identified as Hafeez alias
Mahmood who was wanted in Sri Lankan cricket team attack
case (2009), Tahreek-i-Taliban Punjab commander Qasim alias
Rafiq and another Taliban member Yasir.
"Hafeez carried a head money of Rs 2 million, and Wasim
and Yasir Rs 1.2m each," he said, adding that two hand grenades,
kalashnikoves and suicide jackets have been recovered from the
house. Virk further said the terrorists were planning to launch
an attack in Lahore.
Mangalore to Jat
Jammu to Mangalore
Mumbai to Jammu
Departure 2472
11-15
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
2473
2474
2475
2476
2477
2478
2919
2920
9223
9224
4609
4610
8101
8102
2445
15-45
11-15
15-45
11-15
15-45
11-15
16-10
09-00
19-55
07-00
04-40
18-45
13.15
14-30
06.20
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
Departure
Arrival
2355
2356
1PJU
1PJU
2PJU
1JU
2JU
2PJU
1449
1450
4601
4602
3JU
09.55
20.10
07.40
07.45
17.10
13.10
17.00
17.10
14.10
23.30
12.10
20.00
08.30
Departure 2446
Departure 4JU
17.30
Swaraj EXP
Jammu to Mumbai
Sarvodaya EXP Ahmedabad to JAT
Sarvodaya EXP Jammu to Ahmedabad
HAPPA EXP
Rajkot to Jammu
Happa EXp
Jammu to Rajkot
Jamnagar EXP Happa to Jammu
Jamnagar EXP Jammu to Happa
Malwa EXP
Indore to Jammu
Malwa EXP
Jammu to Indore
JAT ADI EXP Ahmedabad to JAT
JAT ADI EXP Jammu to Ahmedabad
Hemkund EXP Rskh to Jammu
HW EXP
Jammu to Rskh
TAT MORI EXP TATA to Jammu Tawi
TATA MORI EXP Jammu Tawi to TATA
UttarSampar
N Delhi to UHP
Uttar SKranti
Archana EXP
Archana EXP
DMU
DMU
DMU
DMU
DMU
DMU
Jabalpur EXP
Jabalpru EXP
Mordhwaj EXP
Mordhwaj EXP
DMU
DMU
Udhampur to MDLS
Pattana to Jammu
Jammu Tawi to Pattana
Pathankot to Jammu
Jammu to Udhampur
UHP to Jammu
JammuTawi to Udh
UHP to JAT
Jammu to Udhampur
Jabalpru to Jat
Jammu Tawi to Jabalpur
Sonwpur to Jammu
Jammu to Sonepur
UHP to JAT
Jat to UHP
TELEPHONES:- Railway Enquiry 131, 132, 139, 2470212,2470029, Booking 2470318, Reservation 2470315, Computer Res. Enquiry 1931, 240314,
2470315, 2470316 Station Manager - 2474757. Division Traffic Manager 2474377. For online reservation equiry www.indianrail.gov.in
FLIGHT TIMING
ARRIVAL
Jammu 12.40 p.m
Srinagar 01.45 p.m
Jammu 03.10 p.m
Delhi 05.00 pm
Jammu 08.40 a.m
Leh 10.20 a.m
20-30
Tue,
Wed,
Fri,
Sat
Sun
Thur
Thur
Mon
Wed
Sun
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Sun to
Fri
Sun to
Fri
Sun
Mon
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Daily
Wed
Wed
Mon
Fri
Mon
to Fri
Fri
to Mon
JET AIRWAYS FLIGHT TIMINGS
SCHEDULE
9 W 605
TIME
Daily
Delhi
Departure
11:50Hrs.
Daily
Jammu
Arrival
13:00 Hrs.
Daily
Jammu
Departure
13:35Hrs.
Daily
Srinagar
Arrival
14:10Hrs
Tele.No. City Booking Office 2574312/15, Airport : 2453888/999
Tele No. City Booking Office 2542735, 2546086
BUSINESS & SPORTS
JAMMU TUESDAY APRIL, 28, 2015, PAGE 9
Glimpses of Future
Blackmoney: Lone Member of Special
Court Quits, Major Setback for PMLA Cases
Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 27:
In a major blow to fight
against black money, a special
authority established to try money laundering cases bearing revenue value of crores of rupees has
been rendered vacant as the lone
member of the three-member
body resigned today.
The Adjudicating Authority
(AA) under the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act (PMLA)
is designated to function as the
first appellate authority against
attachment of assets made by the
Enforcement Directorate (ED)
under stringent money laundering laws. Any party whose assets,
whether movable or immovable,
have been attached by the ED under PMLA laws can appeal before
the special court which has to decide on the extension of the freeze
within 180 days of the issue of the
order by the probe agency.
While the special court was
already under-staffed, in the absence of a Chairman for the last
about five months, the other post
of the Member (acting as Judge)
has been vacant for over a year
now. The lone serving Member of
the AA Mukesh Kumar, an exDirector General of Income Tax
(Investigations), tendered his
resignation today citing "personal reasons". "I shall be relinquishing office on the expiry of 3
months from the date of receipt of
this letter (April 27, 2015) in your
office unless my resignation is accepted from the earliest date.
"I am thankful to your good
self for kind cooperation extended by your Honour from time to
time," Kumar said in his letter.
Sources said Kumar had decided to quit as the AA has to hear
over the next few months more
than 100 money laundering attachment cases filed by the ED,
some of which are high-profile
with a value of over Rs 800 crore
involved. It would be near impossible for one person to handle all
these cases. If the cases are not
heard in time, all assets seized by
the ED would stand de-freezed.
"The lone Member would not
be able to take such a huge volume of cases single-handedly as
the two other posts of Judges, including a Chairman, have been
vacant for a long time now.
"A number of cases are getting time-barred in the next few
days and months and that would
be a big setback for the ED which
is combating money laundering
instances in India and abroad under the overall fight against the
menace of black money," sources
said.
Kumar did not respond to
phone calls made to him to elicit
the reasons of his pre-mature exit. He was appointed as the
Member of the AA in 2013 for a period of five years by an order of
the President under the seal of
Finance
Ministry's
the
Department of Revenue.
Sources privy to the development at the special court said a total of 112 cases are listed to be
heard on the cause list of the
court till today with over Rs 4,000
crore of revenue locked therein.
"At least 30 more attachments done by the ED before
March 31 are set to land at the
table of the court soon. In absence
of any Member, the future of the
cases looks jeopardised," sources
said adding the government has
been asked a number of times by
the AA and the ED to fill up vacancies.
Some other staff of the
Authority including its Registrar
and sub-ordinate staff have also
asked for repatriation to their
original cadre.
CO2 emission from
thermal plants higher
than global stds : Govt
Agencies
New Delhi April 27:
Admitting that emission
of carbon dioxide (CO2) from
thermal power plants in India
was higher than global standards, government today said
it was due to inferior quality of
coal and its higher consumption. Replying to a question in
Rajya Sabha on the issue, Coal
Minister Piyush Goyal said
renovation, modernisation
and life extension of old thermal power generating units
and retirement of old and inefficient thermal generation
units has been undertaken in a
phased manner.
"The CO2 emission from
thermal power plants in the
country is comparatively higher than the global standards
due to inferior quality of coal
and higher ambient air temperature and cooling water
temperature in India, resulting in more consumption of
coal," he said. The Minister
said "a total of 3,115 MW has already been retired till date; another 2,667 MW will be retired
by the end of the 12th Plan.
Obviously, this is a process
which takes several years. We
have now come out with a new
policy, and in the near future,
we shall go in for a massive resubstitution
programme,"
claiming that the policy has
been widely hailed.
Maintaining that public
sector units owning old plants,
the Minister said "all the owners of these old plants have
been asked to give their specific programmes to either replace them or go in for renovation and modernisation.
Already some 2,500 MW - I have
the exact figure-has been replaced."
Goyal said one of the first
steps the government took was
to lay out a policy for completely rehabilitating and changing
over the old plants to new ones
of supercritical technology.
He said one of the constraints for changeover from
old technology to new had been
that the coal linkages were given for a particular plant only
and were not allowed to be enhanced or changed and the old
plants were not able to go in for
new technology.
TRAI Releases Names and Email IDs of Over One Million Individuals
Agencies
New Delh, Apr 27:
The Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (Trai) today
released the name and email IDs
of over one million people who
gave their comments on the consultation paper on net neutrality. As the number of comments
was huge, Trai has divided the
comments under three categories -- comments from service
providers, comments from service providers associations and
comments from other stakeholders. However, the Authority
drew the ire of people for exposing the privacy of people.
This comes after all the
stakeholders submitted their
comments on Trai's consultation
paper on Net Neutrality. April 24
was the last day to summit the
comments. The telecom operators said they should be allowed
to offer services based on mutual
agreements with the OTT players. "There is a pressing need to
find a fair regulatory and commercial solution especially for
VOIP telephony services, which
if not addressed could endanger
SPORTS NEWS
Gavaskar Seeks Rs 1.90 Cr From
BCCI for Being IPL President
Agencies
New Delhi , Apr 27:
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has asked for an
amount of Rs 1.90 crore as remuneration for rendering his services as president BCCI-IPL during the seventh edition of the cashrich league last year, which was held in UAE and India.
Gavaskar was appointed 'President, BCCI-IPL' on directive of
Supreme Court of India and the apex court had directed the BCCI
to pay him adequate compensation as he put his various media
commitments (commentary and writing columns) on hold during that period. According to reliable source in the Working
Committee, Gavaskar had written to the Board about the compensation. "Gavaskar has written a letter to the BCCI.In the letter, he has sought an amount to the tune of Rs 1.90 crore which is
equivalent to the money that he had to forego during the period
as he couldn't take up his media assignments which includes TV
commentary, writing columns and also acting as media pundit,"
a senior BCCI official, who was present at the Working committee meeting told PTI today.
When asked whether the amount that he has sought has already been approved, the official said, "Not as of now. But obviously, he needs to be compensated as there is a SC directive and
we need to follow that. But this letter will be placed before the finance committee, which will approve an amount. "The amount
that Gavaskar would get could be exactly what he has demanded
or less depending upon what finance committee's recommendations are," the source added. Meanwhile, it has also been learnt
that Sachin Tendulkar has sought more information from the
board on the nature of his role in the advisory panel. "We have
learnt that Sachin is interested to know as to what exactly is expected from him in regards to his contribution in cricket development. If there is a contract, then what are the terms of reference of that contract and other important details," the source
added. Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid are expected to be a part of an elite advisory panel which will take a call on
who India's next chief coach will be and that technically rules
Ganguly out of the race as far as national coaching is concerned.
Top players to compete in trials for
World Bridge Championship
Agencies
Kolkata, Apr 27:
Top players of the country will be seen in action in the selection trials for the World Bridge Championship to be begin at the
Bengal Rowing Club here tomorrow. Eight teams will participate in the five-day trial to pick the Indian men team for the
World Bridge Championship for Bermuda Bowl which will be
held in India later this year, according to a release.
Teams:
Formidables: Kiran Nadar, B Prabhakar, Rajeswar Tewari,
Sunit Choksi, Keyzad Anklesaria, B Satyanarayana.
Bangur Cement: Debasish Ray, NR Kirubakara Moorthy,
SK Iyenger, Sukamal Das, Chandrashekhar Majumder, Manas
Mukherjee.
Indian Railway: Subir Majumder, Rana Roy, Amarnath
Banerjee, Sumit Mukherjee, Debabrata Majumder, Sandip
Dutta
Hemant Jalan: Hemant Jalan, Ashish Malhotra, Sandeep
Thakral, Kaustav Bendre, Kaustav Nandi, Samir Basak.
Shree Cement: Pritish Kushari, Ravi Goenka, Vinay Desai,
Bhabesh Saha, Arun Bapat, Ajay Bagaria.
CV Rao: CV Rao, Pranab Bardhan, Partha Sarathi
Mukherjee, Shibnath De Sarkar, Avijit Chakrabarty, Satyabrata
Mukherjee.
Daya Dhaon: Daya Dhaon, Dipak Santra, Snehasish Roy,
Pinaki Prasad Khan, Kajal Das, Aniruddha Bhattacharya.
Arun Jain: Raju Tolani, Ajay Khare, S Sundarram, P
Sridharan, Swarnendu Banerjee, JM Shah, Arun Jain.
the entire Digital India programme of the Government,"
Vodafone India said in its comments on Trai's consultation paper on regulatory framework for
OTT services.
However, Nasscom said the
Information Technology Act is
mandated to ensure this and believe there is no need for any additional regulations for content
and services.
"Internet Platforms and
Services communications do not
require licensing. There are user
led evaluation reports that helps
consumers make an informed
choice as they adopt internet
platforms
and
services,"
Nasscom said. Airtel said, at
present,
telecom
service
providers and OTT communication service providers offer the
same communication services
such as voice.
"While TSPs are subject to a
number of regulatory and licensing requirements, such as payment of licence fee, taxes, security conditions, among others,
OTT communication service
providers have no such obligations," Airtel said. Idea also said
there should be "Same Service,
Same Rules" so that all stakeholders are bound to offer same
services under the same regulations and no one gets an undue
advantage. Internet Service
Providers Association of India
echoed the demand for same
service same rules.
On OTT players impacting
traditional revenue stream of
telecom operators, Internet &
Mobile Association of India (IA-
MAI) said it is not true that innovations of VoIP and text apps
have affected the TSPs financial
stability and available data,
points to the contrary.
"Indicators of revenues
from regulatory filings, earning
calls of telecom companies and
public statements clearly indicate that data is driving telecom
growth," IAMAI said.
As the number of comments
was huge, Trai has divided the
comments under three categories -- comments from service
providers, comments from service providers associations and
comments from other stakeholders.
Telecom industry body GSMA said the efficient way to
manage multiple traffic types is
not to treat all traffic with the
same priority, but to match the
prioritisation of network resources to the traffic characteristics and the service requirements. "To ensure internet remains open and functional, mobile operators should be permitted the flexibility to differentiate
between different types of traffic," GSMA said.
Vodafone said companies
should be free to pursue commercial agreements which offer
consumers innovative new content and services underpinned
by new business models.
"This should include the option to pursue two-way charging
models under which operators
and content providers implement bilateral agreements for
the benefit of consumers,"
Vodafone said.
BUSINESS NEWS
Differentiate Between Genuine
Error and Graft: Arun Jaitley
Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 27:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that there is a fine
difference between corruption and genuine error of decision
which the present anti-graft law fails to recognise. He said the
Prevention of Corruption Act has failed the test of differentiating
between a genuine error of decision making and an act of corruption because of its vague terminology.
Speaking at the 16th DP Kohli memorial lecture, Jaitley also
asked the investigating agencies to desist from "temptation to persecute". "An investigating agency's responsibility is huge. Its discretion is also very large and, therefore, considering the responsibility and discretion where the agency investigates more serious
cases, it prosecutes and yet it has to prevent itself from the temptation to persecute," he said. Jaitley said the Prevention of
Corruption Act was conceived in the pre-liberalisation era and the
scenario changed in 1991 with the ushering in of the liberalised
economy, where a quick decision-making process was the need of
the hour. "Can there be decision-making where every decision
maker is on defensive, cautious of what will eventually... If a decision is taken wrong. The economic decision will also be trial and
error. It may also involve playing with the joints. It may be also
will involve an element of risk," Jaitley said. He questioned if the
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, adequately distinguishes between an act of corruption and an act where a decision-maker
makes an honest error. "I think the 1988 Act fails that test... I think
in the 1988 Act, phrases like corrupt means, public interest, pecuniary advantage, valuable thing, personal interests are phrases
which are vague and capable of more than one construction. "(...)
Once they are capable of more than one construction, they give to
an investigator an opportunity to interpret it either way and, today, the whole ambit of the circumstances under which the investigations are held has also changed," he said.
Rupee Snaps 2-Day Fall, Recovers 8
Paise Vs Dollar at 63.48
Agencies
Mumbai, Apr 27:
Snapping its two-day losing trend, the rupee today recovered
by 8 paise to close at 63.48 against the US dollar, after plunging to a
4-month intra-day low of 63.77, on fresh selling of the American
currency by exporters and some banks. However, distinctly weak
local equities, sustained capital outflows and firm dollar overseas
capped the rupee rise to a major extent, a forex dealer said.
Initially, the domestic unit commenced weak at 63.70 a dollar from
previous close of 63.56 and moved downwards to log almost 4month intra-day low of 63.77 -- level not seen since when it had
touched a low of 63.79 on December 30, 2014. Dealers attributed the
fall in the rupee value to a host of factors such as sluggish local
stocks, continued selling by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) -who sold shares worth USD 113.93 million last Friday as per Sebi
data -- and firm dollar overseas by 0.23 per cent against its global rivals ahead of the two-days US Fed's policy meeting. However, later
it fell back in the last session on renewed heavy dollar selling by exporters and some banks to a high of 63.46 before closing at 63.48, exhibiting a rise of eight paise or 0.13 per cent. In past two days, it had
tumbled by 74 paise or 1.18 per cent. In New York, the dollar started
the week on the defensive in early trade after more disappointing
US economic data reinforced expectations the US Federal Reserve
will not hike interest rates any time soon, while concerns about
Greece's ongoing debt talks pressured the euro. Back home, the
Indian benchmark Sensex today plunged by 260.95 points, or 0.95
per cent.
Anurag Thakur hits back at N Srinivasan; asks him to share list of suspected bookies
Agencies
New Delhi, Apr 27:
A day after the International
Cricket Council (ICC) letter to
Board of Control for Cricket in
India (BCCI) about Anurag
Thakur socializing with an alleged bookie was made public,
the BJP MP lashed out at N
Srinivasan in a public letter and
asked BCCI to issue a list of suspected bookies. In the letter he
shared on social media site
Twitter, Thakur said that he
knew Karan Gilhotra, as he was
active in the political and cricketing activities in Punjab. "I have
earlier been the Joint Secretary
of the BCCI under your
President-ship and I am now
Indian women lose to Georgia
in World Chess Championship
Agencies
Chengdu, China, Apr 27:
India's chances of a medal
went up in smoke as the team
crashed to a heavy loss against
Georgia in the seventh round of
the World Women's Team Chess
Championship. In a shocking
turn of events, three favourable
positions were spoilt by the
Indians on last three boards as
Georgians coasted to 2.5-1.5 victory.
Reeling on six points after
seven rounds, the Indian
women's team are out of contention now. Koneru Humpy and
Dronavalli Harika have done
their best for the team but the
rest have cut a sorry figure here.
Coming in to the most decisive match of the championship,
the Indian eves had to win but the
third and fourth board were
again disappointing. On the top
board Humpy drew quite easily
as
black
against
Bela
Khotenashvili who is the top performer in the event thus far.
Harika had to win for the
Indians to have any chance and
the Andhra-girl tried her best only to lose heart and the game
against Lela Javakhishvili petered out to a draw.
On the third board, Padmini
Rout, currently ranked the third
highest ranked Indian on ELO
charts, yet again fumbled with
her openings and was crushed by
Meri Arabidze of Georgia despite
getting a drawing chance in the
game.
Soumya
Swaminathan
could not make a decisive headway when required and drew
with Melia Salome on the fourth
board to complete a Georgian triumph. With just two rounds to
go, the girls lie joint sixth.
Georgia are well in front and
close to gold with 13 points in
their kitty while the Russians
now look far behind on 11 points
after salvaging a draw against
Kazakhstan. It was actually bad
play by Kazakhstan as they
missed out an golden opportunity to beat the Russians. The
Kazakhs were winning on board
one and lost, won on board to
drew easily om board four and
should have won on board three
in the drawn encounter.
Results round 7: Georgia (13)
beat India (6) 2.5-1.5 (Meri
Arabidze drew with Koenru
Humpy; D Harika drew with Lela
Javakhishvili; Meri Arabidze
beat Padmini Rout; Soumya
Swminathan drew with Melia
Salome); Russia (11) drew with
Kazakhstan (6) 2-2; China (9)
drew with Ukraine (8) 2-2;
Armenia (7) drew with USA (3) 22; Egypt (0) lost to Poland (5) 1-3.
Secretary, BCCI. I only wish that
you had shared the list of unverified suspected bookies with me
and other colleagues, so that we
could identify such persons and
keep away from them. I have
known this person, who has been
active in the political and cricketing activities in Punjab and adjacent States. I had no knowledge
or any clue about his activities as
a suspected bookie," the letter
said.
A fresh controversy hit the
BCCI when pictures of Anurag
socializing with Karan Gilhotra
emerged on Sunday. The pictures showed Thakur cutting a
cake, Gilhotra feeding Thakur a
piece of cake and Thakur returning the favour.
In his letter, Anurag further
wrote, "It is curious that intimation about my having known this
'suspected bookie' was brought to
the ICC notice by your friend Mr.
Neeraj Gunde. Mr. Neeraj Gunde
incidentally is circulating to the
media in Delhi the details of documents against your critics in
the BCCI. He operates on your behalf. A procured complaint and
an ICC advisory based on 'unverified information' was issued at
your behest on the eve of the BCCI Working Committee meeting.
It was intended to be a counter offensive on your behalf, since you
have not reconciled with my election as Secretary, BCCI. Taking a
jab
at
Srini's
son-in-law
Gurunath Meiyappan, Anurag
said that the ICC chairman
should share a list of suspected
bookies even with his family
members.
"I would request at least now
share with me or other colleagues in BCCI the list of suspected bookies in India, so that
we may keep away from them.
You may also share this information with your family members,
whose involvement in betting
has been proved. Since the ICC
advisory to me had been made in
public, I would be making this
letter to you public," Anurag
signed off. As per a news report in
DNA, ICC CEO Dave Richardson
sent a mail to BCCI president
Jagmohan Dalmiya notifying
him about the BJP MP's association with Gilhotra, who is on
their
Anti-Corruption
and
Security Unit (ACSU) database.
As per the ICC mail, their ACSU
had unverified information in
2014 that Gilhotra was attempting to get friendly with IPL players and support staff.
Ravi Sawani, director of the
BCCI ACSU, had written to all
IPL team managers back then,
asking them to ensure Gilhotra
was not given access to players
and support staff.
As per a picture released by a
news website, Thakur and
Gilhotra are seen together at a
cake
cutting
ceremony.
However, it would be unfair at
the moment to draw any conclusion regarding the nature of relationship between the two.
“I can only laugh at this. I
have already sent a notice to the
ICC for mentioning my name in
their database. I have never received any communication from
the ICC, the BCCI or any IPL franchise in this regard. I am a cricket lover. I am a social person and I
love to meet and interact with
people.
“I know Anurag for more
than 10 years. The pictures being
circulated in the media were
clicked at my wedding anniversary party in Chandigarh last
month. Do you think Anurag, a
sitting MP of the BJP, will be associated with a person involved
in illegal activities? Just because
I know people and party with
them, it doesn’t mean I am involved in any wrongdoing,”
Gilhotra told DNA.
I Feel Honoured Over Arjuna
Arward Recommendation: Rohit
Agencies
Mumbai, Apr 27:
Indian
batsman
Rohit
Sharma today expressed delight
about the BCCI's decision to recommend his name for the government's prestigious Arjuna Award
and said that he felt "honoured".
"Kushi to bahut hai (I feel
very happy). I am honoured that
BCCI has recommended my
name. It felt very good when I
heard it yesterday," said Rohit at
a promotional event for adidas
here.
BCCI took the decision to put
forth Roihit's name to the government for the Arjuna Award yesterday at its working committee
meeting in Kolkata.
The 27-year-old Mumbaikar
scored a brilliant 264 against Sri
Lanka last season, the highest
score by anyone in the world in
ODI cricket, at the Eden Gardens,
Kolkata. He is the only batsman
to have scored two ODI double
hundreds. Rohit, who is leading
Mumbai Indians at this year's
Indian Premier League cricket
event, said though the team's performance has not been good so
far, the squad members are hoping to carry the momentum they
got when defending a small total
successfully against Sun Risers
Hyderabad two days ago.
"We could have batted better.
Our bowlers won us the game
though we were defending a
small total. We are hoping to carry the momentum into our next
game (against Rajasthan Royals
at the Wankhede Stadium on
May 1)," said Rohit.
"We have quality in the team.
We defended 157 which is not
easy to do at the Wankhede
Stadium. We are also the side
which has scored 210. We have to
continue the momentum."
"I know we have not performed well, two wins in seven is
not good. But we were in similar
situation last year too and qualified (for the play-offs). I am not
saying we should do so every
year," he explained.
Though MI has lost the services
of
Australia's
Josh
Hazlewood, who has pulled out of
the tournament, and injured New
Zealand all rounder Corey
Anderson, Rohit said there were
others who now have the chance
to step up to the plate and deliver.
"Losing Hazlewood before
the tournament and Anderson after he played a few games for us
were big blows as they were in
good form coming into the IPL.
But this has given a chance to
Colin Munro (of New Zealand),
who appears to be a very promising cricketer, and Mitchell
McClenaghan (New Zealand).
Let's wait and watch," said Rohit.
The right-handed batsman,
who does not play unorthodox
shots even in T20 cricket, said
there was no reason for him to do
so as he can clear the rope with
conventional strokes.
"Why should I try and play
innovative shots when I can clear
the ground in front. As a batsman
you should know your strengths
and back them," he remarked.
Glimpses of Future
CYMK
ENTERTAINMENT
Jacqueline
Fernandez to
debut in a Sri
Lankan film
Jacqueline Fernandez has proved that she’s got the
look and the charm to be one of Bollywood’s gorgeous import. This Sri Lankan beauty is working in biggies and is
collecting a lot of praise for her films. But wherever you
are, you never forget your roots. Soon, Jacqueline will be
seen in a Sri Lankan production called According to
Matthew. She plays the mistress of a murderous Pastor in
the film.
The film is based on the life of Rev. Mathew Pieris, a
pastor who was convicted of the double murder of his wife
and his lover’s husband. Jacqueline has been cast opposite Alston Koch in the film. Director of the film,
Chandran Rutnam, can’t stop raving about Jacqueline’s
performance in the film. He feels that when she moves
during a shot, everything around her falls into place.
The director is so happy with her work that he already has another project in mind with her. Unlike
According to Matthew which is an English film, the second film will release in English and Hindi. According to
Matthew will release in UK and USA in July
Gabbar Is Back new poster:
Akshay Kumar professes to be
the leader of the aam aadmi!
fter engaging us with
so many inteasers,
triguing
Kumar’s
Akshay
Gabbar Is Back finally
unveiled their first
trailer a month or so
back. Since then the
movie has been talked
about at every event.
The film maybe looking like a typical South
remake, but still there
is a certain factor that
people are going gaga
about. Today they released a new poster
this
seems
and
grander than before.
This new poster
shows Akki standing
ahead of a huge crowd
and asking “Kitne aadmi thay?” The poster is
evident of the fact that
Akshay is being portrayed as the messenger of the masses. He is
going to take their day
to day issues and troubles caused by corruption and stick it back
to the politicians and
others alike.
The dialogue in
the poster reminds
you about the iconic
Gabbar Singh from
Sholay, but here
Akki’s character will
fight against bad men
and not be the bad guy
himself. Interesting
hai na? So go ahead
BollywoodLifers,
check out this dumdaar poster and let us
know your thoughts
about the same in the
comments section below.
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 10
SCREEN SHOW
No Bollywood calling
for Sachin Tendulkar’s
daughter Sara!
A
Since morning everyone is talking about Sachin
Tendulkar’s daughter gearing up for Bollywood. Reports
have been doing the rounds about Sara Tendulkar teaming
up with Shahid Kapoor for a film. However, this piece of information isn’t true. Yes, the master blaster’s 17-year-old isn’t entering the world of showbiz. But how do we know, you
ask? Well, Sachin himself took to Twitter to clear the air
about his daughter joining the film industry. Just a while
back, he wrote on the popular social networking site, “My
daughter Sara is enjoying her academic pursuits. Annoyed
at all the baseless speculation about her joining films.”
While we won’t get to see Sara on the big screen anytime soon, for now, his father is kicked about his own
Bollywood debut. London based filmmaker James Erskine
will be directing Sachin Tendulkar’s biopic which is tentatively titled 200 Not Out. While Tendulkar is giving all the
inputs needed for the film, the former cricketer will also
star in his biopic. That’s not all! Sachin’s much-awaited
film is expected to release this year. Well, in that case, we
should all focus on Tendulkar’s biopic than anything else,
right? After all, everyone wants to see him back in action!
After long, here’s some good
news for Sanjay Dutt fans!
Did Sidharth Malhotra just confirm
his love for Alia Bhatt?
Actor Sanjay Dutt as
we all know was educated
at the renowned Lawrence
School, Sanawar near
Kasauli. The actor used to
regularly visit his Alma
mater as he was proud to
be a Sanawarian, possessing a deep connection and
bond with his teachers and
classmates, and also encourage all the school activities and events in his
own way despite his hectic
filming schedule!
We now hear that the
Shomie
Das
schools
Friendship cup (SDFC)
has dedicated and named
their prestigious Man Of
The Tournament Trophy
in honor of their most deserving alumnus aka
Sanjay Dutt and it will be
called Sanjay Dutt Man Of
The Tournament Trophy
for next three years! SDFC
is a privately organised cricket league. It’s an annual cricket fixture between the alumni of some of India’s best
known boarding schools like Sanawar, Mayo and Doon. Well we must say getting honored and feted by ones beloved school is definitely heartwarming news!
Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra’s romance is the talk of the town. Though the couple has never really admitted to their relationship in front of the media, the two are often spotted spending time together. And guess
what? Sid just confessed his love for Ms Bhatt, and that too in one of the cutest ways possible. Yes, that’s right!
So the last time Sidharth was questioned about Alia he had bluntly brushed it off saying that the rumours
are fake and people should stop making a big deal out of it. However, in his recent interview with a leading daily,
he was glad to quote, ” I am a big fan of Kareena, and I have told her that.\
There’s a certain kind of energy and exuberance she comes with. What I like is that she isn’t play-acting
when she does chirpy roles. She is actually a light-hearted, endearing person. I would like to do a full-fledged film
with her now……She is happily married. I wish we had a younger version of Kareena for me to date (laughs).”
Ahem! Younger version of Kareena equals to Alia?
Wanted to do a romantic film like 'Piku': Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan is glad that director Shoojit Sircar offered him the
romantic role in "Piku" opposite
Deepika Padukone as their love
story is made up of endearing moments and gestures.
Irrfan plays the role of Rana
Chaudhary, who runs a cab service
in Delhi and that's how he comes in
Piku and her father's life.
The actor said the movie, slated to hit the screens on May 8, was
an emotional but fun ride for him,
Deepika and Amitabh Bachchan.
"It is a very entertaining and
engaging film and love is a very important part of this story. It was
Shoojit's trust in me that he gave
me a romantic lead. I was longing
to do something like this. I also
wanted to do comedy.
Coincidentally, I got both these elements in 'Piku'," Irrfan told PTI in
an interview.
The "Namesake" star, 48, said the silences in the movie stand out as they shot the film as if they were doing a theatre production. "We were
shooting on the Gujarat highway and we were in the car. The director and actor can talk very little because there is an urgency in such scenes. In
this scene, which is very small, I have to give her a look and say something because we have been travelling for a long time. It is just a look but so
beautiful. Shoojit was emotional after seeing it." He loved the way Shoojit extracted a restrained performance from his actors. "I found it very interesting that he is not underlining stuff for the audience. There is so much unsaid that goes between the characters. I enjoy this style of storytelling, where it is not just dialogues but you are communicating with every breath and gesture," he said. It is for the first time that Irrfan is working with Big B and the actor loved every moment of their scenes together. "Bachchan saab is Bachchan saab. I have been offered roles with him
earlier but nothing materialised so when you get a chance to work with him, you want to make it as memorable as possible. It was exciting to be
with all the actors be it Deepika or Moushumi Chatterjee. It was very engaging." Irrfan feels Bollywood is in a redefining phase as the viewers now
expect more from their cinema. "It is new Bollywood. Audience is waiting for Bollywood to redefine itself. We should incorporate the intelligence
of audience. I feel directors like Shoojit and writers like Juhi (Chaturvedi) will take it in a different direction."
How can Katrina Kaif stay away from
Ranbir Kapoor’s mistakes on Twitter?
It’s really sweet to see the love between Katrina
Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor. They are so much in
love with each other that they don’t mind following each other’s footsteps. It is really heartwarmingly sweet. Ranbir joined Twitter as a part of
Lenovo’s campaign for their model A6000R.
Katrina too joined Twitter for a cause which is
the Cannes Film Festival 2005. She will walk the
red carpet for the first time at the festival. That’s
lovely, but we don’t think you would appreciate
to be at the receiving end of this promotional gimmick. Ranbir did earn a lot of flak for the same
and here are some of the ways to avoid his mistakes.
Ranbir profile reeked of fake notes. It was as
if a PR team was employed to Tweet on his behalf., It was impersonal and for a celebrity, that
works against his image. Even if you are tweeting with an agenda in mind, there are ways to
make it look less official. So Katrina you can
tweet about Cannes but kindly make sure they
aren’t superficial.
Ranbir didn’t make any effort to connect
with his followers. Even a simple ‘Hi’ would have
gone a long way. Katrina, you can be an exception
here and try to express a bit on Twitter even if
that means you are commenting on Sonam
Kapoor’s attire on the red carpet. Also, a bit of
candidness on the account will go a long way
which Ranbir lacked.
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 11
Glimpses of Future
Focused attention on improving road
Kashmiri Pandits rehabilitation only
possible if homeland is craved: Panun Kashmir connectivity in rural areas: Kohli
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27:
Panun Kashmir, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri
Pandits, on Monday reiterated
that the rehabilitation of the
community was only possible
if a "separate homeland" with
the status of "Union Territory"
was created within the valley.
"Panun Kashmir wants a
return to freedom and not a return to the servitude of a
Muslim State. When we demand the creation of a Union
Territory, North and East of
river Jhelum in Kashmir valley, we could be rehabilitated,
it is not political positioning. It
is in fact the only way to ensure
the return," said the convener
Panun
Kashmir
of
Agnishekhar.
The situation in the
Kashmir has become such that
the creation of "Panun
Kashmir" has become inevitable not only for Kashmiri
Pandits but for the whole of
India and also for the success of
the global war on terror, and establishment of peace in the region, he said.
He said that there were
"victim collaborators" within
the community and PDP-led
government has been harnessing them for their expediency
and the move to rehabilitate
the community was aimed at
gaining political mileage by
denying the "genocide that the
community faced in Kashmir".
"Governments of the day,
during all these years, have
harnessed them for their expediency. Governments have
done so because they have been
seeking peace with the perpetrators," he said.
The organisation said that
the faith and support in the
'Margadarshan Resolution' (demand for homeland) was the
only way forward.
"Panun Kashmir assures
the community and the
Patriotic People of India that
together they would work for
creating a resurgent India, for
restoring India in that
Kashmir, which would be free
of any encumbrances of the superfluous and temporary
Article 370," said chairman of
Kashmir
Ajay
Panun
Chrungoo said.
He also alleged that the reported process initiated by the
government of India towards
the return and rehabilitation of
the community to the Kashmir
valley was done without even
consulting the community.
"However, as soon as the
news with regard to government moves became public
Rains lash Valley, Srinagar city inundated
‘Weather to
remain dry
till April 30
GOF Staff Reporter
Srinagar, April 27:
Rains lashed Kashmir
Valley since Sunday night after
days of dry weather even as the
minimum temperatures went
down at all places across
Kashmir Valley while the MeT
department predicted dry
weather in the coming three
days.
Almost all places in
Kashmir received rains during
the Sunday night and Monday
resulting in the increase in water level in River Jehlum.
MeT Director Sonam Lotus
told CNS that there will be significant decrease in rainfall
from Tuesday morning while
the weather will remain mostly
dry from Tuesday to Thursday
evening. “Light rainfall may
occur on Tuesday but from
Wednesday till Thursday
evening the weather will remain dry.
From Thursday evening,
Valley may witness light rainfall that may continue till May
2,” Lotus said adding that there
is no need to panic and the intensity of rainfall this time will
not be so swift.
Lotus added that the minimum temperature in all places
in Kashmir division, including
Ladakh region, went down
since Sunday night.
A weather official informed that Srinagar city
recorded 3.4 mm of rainfall
while Pahalgam hill resort in
south Kashmir, received the
highest rainfall of 13.5 mm and
the mercury there settled at 8.4
degrees Celsius a drop of nearly 9 degrees. Rains lash almost
every part of Kashmir while
wind storm in North, Central
and South Kahsmir created
panic among people on Sunday
night. Reports said that several
residential houses and cowsheds were damaged due to intense windstorm.
Due to overnight rain, traffic authorities Monday allowed
one-way traffic and vehicles
were allowed to ply from
to
Jammu.
Srinagar
Pertinently, from two consecutive days—April 25-26, vehicles
were allowed from Jammu to
Srinagar to pave way to Durbar
Move.
The incessant rains which
continued till late Monday
evening worsened the scenario
as most of the roads in the city
were inundated, causing great
inconvenience to the common
people.
The drainage failure as
usual led to waterlogging and
inundation of business hub Lal
Chowk, Exhibition Crossing,
Hari Singh High Street,
Jawahar Nagar, Raj Bagh,
Sonawar, TRC Crossing and
other areas. Authorties had
pressed dewatering pumps to
log out water from the localities and roads.
Due to incessant rains, the
nallahs and flood channels witnessed a steep rise in water level. In North Kahsmir’s
Handwar town, a ten year old
girl Tabasum Gulzar Mir of
Gujjarpati Wudarbala lost her
life when she slipped to death
in a local nallah while on way
to her school from the home.
Reports said that police started
an operation to flush out her
body.
In Gulab-Sheikh Safapora
area on Srinagar-Bandipora
road, traffic was disrupted for
hours after the road started
caved in due to incessant rains.
South
Kashmir’s
In
Baramulla district scores of
people took to roads after
Nanak Bhavan market was
flooded with rain water. The
rain waters reportedly entered
into several shops prompting
traders to stage protest against
the government. The protesters demanded dewatering of
water from the market. Police
and civil administration officials rushed to spot and pacified the protesting traders.
(Kashmir based news agency).
Muslim leadership across the
political divide in Kashmir valley rejected the return of
Kashmiri Pandits to any kind
of secured settlements in the
valley.
"This unanimous rejection
of the return of Kashmiri
Hindus to Kashmir Valley by
the entire spectrum of the
Kashmiri leadership is a clear
reminder that the forced expulsion of Kashmiri Hindus was
not an act committed by a few,"
he said.
He said that there was a
widespread societal connivance in the entire operation
of religious cleansing of
Kashmiri Pandits.
"It is also a reminder of the
fact that Kashmiri Muslim
leadership is an integral part of
a fundamentalist, intolerant
and exclusivist religious
monolith," he said. PTI
Navi Mumbai civic polls:
NCP-Congress enter
into post-poll tie-up
Agencies
Mumbai, April 27:
The NCP today announced a
post poll tie-up with Congress in
the 111-member Navi Mumbai
Municipal Corporation, elections
to which were held recently. NCP
had bagged 52 seats while
Congress had won ten. The simple majority required in the civic
body was 56. Party President
Sunil Tatkare told reporters that
NCP leader Ganesh Naik had appealed to "like-minded" parties to
join hands. "His appeal has been
accepted. NCP will keep Mayor
Standing
Committee
and
Chairman post for five years.
While the Congress will have the
Deputy Mayor post. While other
committees would be headed for
four years by NCP and remaining
one year by Congress. Congress
will get adequate representation
in different committees," he said.
With NCP and Congress joining
hands, NCP has a comfortable
majority of 62 in the 111-member
civic body. Shiv Sena had won 37
while BJP got six and there are 5
independents. Congress and NCP
had fought the Navi Mumbai and
Aurangabad
Municipal
Corporation polls separately. At
the same time, the two parties
had supported each other in the
Bandra east, Tasgaon and
Mukhed Assembly by-elections.
Earthquake-ravaged Nepal's
Dharahara Tower a site for selfies
GOF Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, April 27:
Social media is a chronicle of life, and sometimes
death. So it should be no surprise that a site of great human
and cultural loss in Nepal's
devastating earthquake is
now barraged with the clicking of smartphones.
Near Kathmandu's famed
Dharahara Tower, a historic
nine- story structure reduced
to an enormous pile of red
brick dust, dozens of people
clambered around the debris
clicking selfies and photos of
their friends posing in front of
the wreckage.
The tower built by Nepal's
royal rulers in the 1800s was
one of the country's most
treasured monuments, and
was photographed far more
than other buildings destroyed by Saturday's quake.
It is unclear how many
people were killed in the tower, but it was believed to have
been filled with tourists.
Pawan Thapa, a 21-year-old
business student who arrived
from the suburbs to try to help
with the recovery effort, was
dismayed by the scene. Some
of those taking pictures were
New Delhi, Apr 27:
To eliminate bogus muster
rolls and plug leakages in implementation of MGNREGA,
the Centre has introduced a
Mobile Monitoring System
(MMS) for effective execution
of works under the rural job
scheme.
The pilot project of MMS
undertaken in 35,000 Gram
Panchayats will eliminate the
bogus musters and will allow
real-time updation of database
for complete transparency,
Minister of State for Rural
Development
Sudarshan
Bhagat said in a written reply
in Rajya Sabha. "MMS would
Rajouri, April 27:
In order to have a firsthand appraisal of
the problems being faced by the people of rural areas Minister for transport, Abdul
Ghani Kohli today convened a public meeting at Mathyani , Kalakote
Addressing a large gathering at
Mathyani, Kohli said Government will ensure an effective mechanism to make the system more accountable and answerable to the
people and all possible efforts will be made
for overall development of every nook and
corner of the state. During the meeting, peo-
ple projected various demands pertaining to
renovation and upgradation of existing
roads , electrification of uncovered habitation , improvement in the drinking water
supply facility , construction of new bridges
and other basic problems of their respective
areas seeking an early redressal.
Responding to the demands of locals at
Mathyani, Kohli said that road connectivity
to the rural areas is vital for all round development and ameliorating socio economic
profile of rural populace. He assured that the
government is paying focused attention to
strengthen this vital sector for the development of the state. He said that besides upgra-
EARTHQUAKE................................
salary for carrying out relief and reconstruction work in Nepal.
Some Rajya Sabha members also suggested that they be allowed to use
funds available to them under the MPLADS scheme to complement
government’s relief efforts in Nepal. (AGENCIES)
NEPAL............................................
dumpers and earth removers and aided by sniffer dogs, disaster
relief workers were trying to locate possible survivors against fading
hopes. The quake that flattened homes and buildings and the subsequent powerful aftershocks forced people out to live in the open under
plastic tents barely shielding them from cold and rains that pounded
the city last night. Fuel and medicines were also in short supply. The
picture was the same in suburbs of Kathmandu and in other rural areas. Nepal's top bureaucrat Leela Mani Paudel said the immediate and
big challenge was relief. "We urge foreign countries to give us special
relief materials and medical teams. We are really desperate for more
foreign expertise to pull through this crisis," he said. "We are appealing for tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses, and 80 different medicines that we desperately need now," he told a press conference. Nepal
does not have helicopters or the expertise to rescue survivors. It needs
help in the form of orthopaedic doctors, nerve specialists, anaesthetists, surgeons and paramedics, Paudel said. Hundreds of people
are still trapped under tonnes of rubble in capital Kathmandu and
some of the worst-affected remote mountainous areas amid concerns
that toll could cross 5,000 mark, authorities said. "The death toll in
Nepal from the earthquake that struck two days ago has risen to
3,726," Nepalese police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said today.
Home ministry's disaster management division said nearly 7,000 people were injured. 1,053 people are reported killed in the Kathmandu
Valley alone and 875 in Sindhupalchowk. Officials and aid agencies
have warned that the casualties could rise as rescue teams reach remote mountainous areas of western Nepal. "Villages are routinely affected by landslides, and it's not uncommon for entire villages of 200,
300, up to 1,000 people to be completely buried by rock falls," aid agency
World Vision spokesman Matt Darvas said. The blocked roads,
downed power lines and overcrowded hospitals along with fresh
tremors are hampering rescue efforts to locate survivors of the quake.
More than 700 disaster relief experts drawn from the National
Disaster Relief Force have been deployed by India. India has mounted
a major rescue and rehabilitation effort, deploying 13 military aircraft which carried field hospitals, medicines, blankets, 50 tonnes of
water and other materials. A senior-level inter-ministerial team from
India has arrived here to assess how India can assist in the relief operations. Teams of health experts from AIIMS and Safdarjung hospital
Delhi have also been deployed. Mass cremations are being held here
continuously. As the death toll rises, the authorities are working on
disposing of the bodies as quickly as possible to prevent a health hazard. Nepal has declared a state of emergency in the wake of the disaster, the worst in over 80 years. Aid flights are coming in continuously
due to which Kathmandu airport is running out of parking bays.
Many planes are having to wait before getting permission to land.
Chaos prevailed in the country's only international airport here with
hundreds waiting to be evacuated. While 2,500 Indians have been
evacuated so far, scores of people were still waiting outside the
Tribhuvan International Airport to board commercial and defence
aircraft to head for home. UN agencies say Nepal is running out of water and food and nearly one million children urgently need humanitarian assistance as they were particularly vulnerable.
MIS..............................................
Johar, Custodian and Ashish Sharma (Ex Area Manager SIPL
Jammu), who by committing criminal breach after hatching criminal
conspiracy by causing and grave losses to the public exchequer to the
extent of Rs. 45,00,000, Excise Magistrate Jammu Amarjeet Singh
Langeh after hearing Advocate Frahan Mirza appearing for the complainant directed Crime Branch Jammu to investigate the matter. In
the complaint it has been submitted that the complainant company is
engaged in providing Cash Management Services for commercial
banks. The complainant company covers about 700 ATMs of various
banks like Punjab National Bank, HDFC, AXIS, SBI, Kotak Mahindra,
ICICI in Jammu and Kashmir Region including so may other States in
the country. The complainant company replenishes cash as per Bank
requirement and for this purposes, the complainant company employed / engage its employees called Custodians. It was further submitted that on 13th March, 2015, one of the client of the complainant
company Punjab National Bank informed the complainant company
vie email to close down the below mentioned ATMs and deposit the
cash in the Bank and company came to know that the Custodian
Sanjay Johar has defaulted by depositing less amount by Rs.
35,00,000/- (Thirty five lac only). Again another shortage amounting to
Rs. 10,00,000 by custodian Sanjay Johar by counter manipulation at
field level has been noticed in ATM situated at Vinayak Bazar, Dogra
Chowk and ATM situated at Satwari Jammu. The company sought
registration of FIR against both the accused. JNF
snow would start melting in the coming days and mountain passes would be cleared the infiltration bids may mark increase in
Kashmir valley shifting the focus from Jammu to Kashmir valley
once again. he said the army has also made fool proof arrangements to
ensure peaceful annual Amarnath pilgrimage. (JKNI)
HIGHWAY.....................................
Locals take snapshots with their cell phones at the historic Dharahara Tower, a city landmark,
that was damaged in the earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal.
smiling for the camera
. "This is earthquake
tourism. This is not right," he
said.
"They are more interested
in clicking their selfies than
understanding that it is a
tragedy.
” Most of those taking pictures, however, did not appear
also help in finding location of
assets by geo-tagging them for
easy verification," he added.
The total amount allocated
for 35,000 mobile/tablets is Rs
35 crore. "Government has
sanctioned
a
Mobile
Monitoring System (MMS) for
better implementation and
monitoring of MGREGS works
starting with 35,000 Gram
Panchayats. The MMS will empower Gram Panchayats and
implementation agencies with
live data from the worksites
and allow an online and realtime updation of data base for
complete transparency," he
said. Sources said that the system is aimed at allowing real
time monitoring of all projects,
workers attendance and work
site measurement and provide
a real time data visibility.
Government has decided
to equip all the GPs and technical/supervisory personnel involved in MGNREGS in the
Country with the new system
in phases.
Mobile monitoring system
uses the existing GSM/GPRS
connectivity and links it with
the NREGA Soft central server,
thereby providing access to data at the village level.
All
Gram/Block
Panchayats
implementing
MGNREGA are eligible under
the
scheme
to
get
a
Mobile/Tablet PC along with
GSM/GPRS connectivity.
to be tourists but locals capturing the devastation of their
community, and the loss of a
landmark that had helped define it. (Agencies)
AI additional
flight from
Jammu to Leh
today
GOF Staff Reporter
Jammu, April 27-
According
to
Station
Manager, Air India (AI),
Mohammad Arif, Air India will
operate additional flight from
Jammu to Leh AI on April 28.
The departure of the flight will
be at 0930 a m and reporting
time at the airport will be at 0730 a
m sharp, this additional flight is operating due to cancellation of
schedule flight AI-450 on 27th April.
"All the stranded passengers of the
cancelled flight are asked to report
at 0730 AM," he said.
dation of roads, other projected problems
will be considered and redressed in a time
bound manner. He directed the concerned officers to look into the issues raised by the people of the area and initiate necessary steps for
an early redressal of the same. Earlier, Kohli
attended a Gojri cultural programme organised by Cultural Academy at Kalakote.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kohli stressed
that J&K is a mosaic of rich cultural traditions which need to be nurtured and preserved. He conveyed good wishes to the people on the occasion and asked the cultural
academy to organize more programmes to
promote local culture and tradition.
Continuation From Page No. 1
ARMY........................................
Mobile monitoring system
introduced to plug holes in MGNREGA'
Agencies
GOF Staff Reporter
highway, have been working to clear all hurdles to make the road
two way. The highway was damaged at several places in March due to
landslides and washing away portion of road, therefor only one-way
traffic have been allowed for the past four months to avoid traffic jams
and accidents. The highway used to remain closed frequently during
the month of March due to landslides, snow and collapse of mountains
resulting in shortage of essentials, particularly vegetables in the
Valley. Prices of vegetables, therefore, remained high despite the fact
that a large number of fresh stock had arrived here from Jammu since
then. Meanwhile, the Srinagar-Leh national highway, connecting the
Ladakh region with Kashmir, have also been remained closed since
December last year due to snow. However, fresh snowfall last week
has hampered the snow clearance operation. Official sources said
there were fresh huge snow avalanches on the highway between
Drass and Zero Point, particularly near Shaitannallah Gumri, badly
affecting the snow clearance operation. The BRO is also working to
clear the snow from both sides of the Zojila pass. The organisation said
due very heavy snowfall recently, there were 30 feet to 40 feet snow avalanches following which about 1.5 km road was affected. The highway, was closed in December last year due to accumulation of snow, is
expected to reopen during the first week of next month, the BRO officials said. The Mughal road, connecting the Shopian in south
Kashmir with Poonch in Jammu region also remained closed. The
snow clearance operation was going on war footing. Dozens of roads,
connecting far flung and remote areas, including those near LoC in
Kupwara and Bandipora districts were also closed due to snow.
(AGENCIES)
AFTER ....................................
to vacate all the hotels it had occupied on the Boulevard Road
here,” one of the government official told KNS. He said that the
tourism is picking up and move is aimed only to ease out the problems
of accommodation to tourists. He said that providing of alternate accommodation to CRPF is one of the priorities. “It is one of the priorities and we are actively looking for alternate accommodation for
force. “Since the eruption of militancy in the Valley anti-insurgency
forces were deployed in haphazard manner and we are trying to give a
shape to it,” he added. It is to mention here that National conference
government had removed 45 bunkers of CRPF from different parts of
Srinagar. The removal of bunkers in Srinagar was part of the 8-point
Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) announced by the Centre in
September 2010, after the massive unrest broke out in Kashmir. The
CBMs were meant to provide relief and instill a sense of security and
confidence in the people of the state.
MUFTI............................................
to facilitate the people residing in the areas adjoining the Jama
Masjid. Earlier, Mufti Sayeed paid obeisance at the holy Asar-iSharief Shrine at Hazrtabal. He also reviewed the beautification proj-
ect of the shrine precincts, which includes marble cladding of the
minaret, being done at cost of Rs. 3.60 crore. During his visit to
Khanqah-e-Moula at Zainakadal, the Chief Minister issued directions
to Chief Engineer, R&B to prepare a detailed plan for construction of a
footbridge from Khanqah-e-Moula to Pather Masjid to facilitate the
pilgrims and residents living in the nearby areas. He also asked
Director Tourism to improve the facilities under pilgrim tourism at
the holy shrine. While undertaking extensive tour of the Dal Lake, the
Chief Minister visited Char Chinari and Sona Lank islands. He asked
Director Tourism to make arrangements for starting cultural
evenings and Dunga cruises for providing entertainment to heritage
tourists. He also called for shoreline development of Sona Lank and
construction of pedestrian walkway along NPL from Nishat to
Doldum area. Mufti Sayeed issued directions to VC LAWDA to complete the acquisition process for setting into motion the realignment
of houseboats so that these are connected to a common sewerage treatment plant. He was informed that clusterization of houseboats at
Doldum will be undertaken on a fast-track basis. "The Government
will also prepare a package for the Dal dwellers, who are shifting to
Rakh-e-Arth at Bemina so that their issues of sustained livelihood are
taken care of,” the Chief Minister said. The Chief Minister inspected
the present status of work on J&K ERA-executed Jahangir ChowkRam Bagh Flyover during which he was briefed about the alignment
of Elevated Expressway Corridor of the project. The project, being
taken up under Urban Sector Development Investment Programme
(USDIP) of ERA with aid from ADB, is expected to be completed by
While reviewing the four-lanning of BoulevardMarch 2017.
Kralsangri Road, at Nehru Park, Mufti Sayeed was informed that the
project envisages a total cost of Rs. 33.43 crore which shall be undertaken under CRF. The project envisages acquisition of land which
shall be State’s equity in the Central project. The Chief Minister directed Chief Engineer, R&B, to also keep a provision for a dedicated
cycle track within the project. At Pantha Chowk, the Chief Engineer,
R&B, also briefed the Chief Minister about the present status of 2.80
km long Pantha Chowk-Zewan four-lanning / widening project, being
taken up at a cost of Rs. 25.75 crore, comprising Rs. 17.71 crore acquisiMufti Sayeed also vistion cost and Rs. 8.04 crore development cost.
ited Idgah, where he passed directions for finding a permanent solution to the persisting problem of water-logging. The Chief Engineer
UEED was directed to ensure that drain and sewer lines are properly
laid and connected. Director Tourism was asked to coordinate with
the Floriculture Department and the J&K Wakaf Board to immediately take up the beautification of Idgah Complex beginning next month.
He also directed VC Wakaf Board to prepare a renovation plan for development of the revered Aali Masjid. At Badam Wari, which is being
maintained and developed by J&K Bank, the Chief Minister issued instructions to Director Tourism to take up with the concerned agencies
the laying of a mini-ropeway from the almond orchard to the JKTDC
restaurant on the Hari Parbat hillock. He also called for holding weekend cultural functions in the Badam Wari to provide add-on facilities
to the tourists and locals visiting the garden. Chairman, J&K Bank,
Mushtaq Ahmad, briefed the Chief Minister about the steps taken by
the Bank in developing the garden as a major tourist attraction in the
heart of the old walled city. The Chief Minister also visited the Sultanul-Arifeen school and the site for construction of Bibi Halima Nursing
College, near Kathi Darwaza. At the Sangarmal Complex, Mufti
Sayeed passed directions for merging eight kanals of land belonging
to Estates Department with Sangarmal Complex which shall enable
the commercial complex to have a front-side view facing the Maulana
Azad Road. “We will organize amusement and entertainment programmes at Sangarmal to make it an ideal destination for people,” he
added. In a major fillip to indoor sports, the Chief Minister issued onthe-spot directions at the Indoor Stadium Complex for starting school
and college-level inter-district and other co-related activities.
Expressing serious concern over the under-utilization of the infrastructure created, he passed directions to the concerned authorities
for making the complex accessible to children who are inclined towards taking up indoor sports in a big way. At Raj Bagh, the Chief
Minister was briefed by the Chief Engineer, I&FC about the steps taken by the department to fortify the Jhelum embankments, which had
weakened following the September flood fury. He asked CE, I&FC and
Director Tourism to prioritize dredging of the riverbed and strengthening and landscaping of the Jhelum bunds up to Chattabal Veer. The
Chief Minister was informed that river cruises will begin from May 12
next month which will take the visitors to historic places like LD
Memorial, Shergarhi, Khanqah-e-Moula, Maharaj Gunj and the
Hazrat Bul Bul Shah (RA) shrine. During his visit to Kashmir Haat,
the Chief Minister issued instructions to Director Handicrafts to take
steps for making the Haat year-round Crafts Centre that showcases
genuine handicrafts products of the State. He asked the concerned authorities to take preventive steps to check water-logging of the areas
surrounding the Haat. Mufti Sayeed also visited the multi-level commercial-cum-parking complex being established at Sheikh Bagh as
well as parking slot at Old State Motor Garages premises. He directed
VC SDA to revisit the Sheikh Bagh parking complex by dedicating
more land for parking purpose and creating add-on paraphernalia so
that it becomes a template for other commercial parking places in the
city centre. Later, the Chief Minister visited Pampore to review the
ongoing work on Staff Quarters being constructed by J&K Estates
Department. Director Estates, Dr. G. N. Itoo, informed the Chief
Minister that 400 flats are being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs.
90.65 crore. Mufti Sayeed also viewed a presentation given by Chief
Engineer, PHE, M. A. Lankar, about the present status of 10 MGD
Water Supply Scheme, Tangnar, which is being constructed at a total
cost of Rs. 148 crore. He was informed that Rs. 101 crore have so far
been utilized and 80% of the work on the project has been completed.
SCHOOL ......................................
school bearing registration number JK0214-7838 and they tied the
Chowkidar Dulat Ram after assaulting him in the premises of the institution. Putting knife on his neck, the three criminals who were
drunk told Chowkidar that they have come from Pakistan and willing
to go to Madohpur for which they need the school bus while demanding its keys. Frightened with the aggressive gestures of the suspected
persons (who were criminals not militants) sources said, the
Chowkidar handed over a key of the vehicle to them following they
fled away with the school bus. Immediately, they left the premises
with the vehicle, sources said, the Chowkidar alerted the police and
Army and accordingly, a massive hunt was launched to track down
the suspected persons. After hours long searches, they said, the school
bus was recovered which was abandoned three km away, during
morning hours. The search operation was later called off.
ARMY..........................................
handed over the army authorities after legal formalities. The deceased soldier, according to police, was identified as Naib Subedar
Bimlesh Yadav son of Youraj Singh and Army’s driver constable Ravi
Shanker both residents of UP.
SRINAGAR....................................
YOUTH.........................................
fished out and handed over to her family for last rites, the police
added. PTI
where doctors declared him as brought dead. Prima facie it seems
that the youth may have suffered a heart attack, police said, adding
the reason behind the death is being investigated. The Army has been
holding recruitment rallies in six districts of Jammu and Kashmir to
fill 1,305 vacancies in the Territorial Army.
ISLAMIC
"seriously injured" in US-led air strikes last year, but they were
not confirmed. The Pentagon had refuted the latest report of Baghdadi
being injured, saying there was no evidence to prove that the ISIS
chief had suffered injuries when the US-led coalition planes bombarded the al-Baaj a district of Nineveh, near Syrian border on March 18.
The ISIS overran a huge swathe of Iraq and Syria in June last year and
established the so-called “Islamic State” across occupied areas and
anointed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph. Declaring the Caliphate,
Baghdadi who rarely makes public appearances, appeared at a
mosque in July, demanding all Muslims to pledge allegiance to him.
The US has imposed a bounty worth $10 million on the al-Baghdadi's
head. Despite a spate of coalition strikes on ISIS in Iraq and Syria
since August last year, the extremists continue to advance and unleash bloodshed and terror.
CYM K
CYM K
JAMMU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, PAGE 12
Glimpses of Future
Mufti’s promise of equitable
development exposes; alleges Jora
Srinagar, Apr 27:
Congress Legislature Party (CLP)
leader Rigzin Jora Monday alleged Mufti
Sayeed government’s promise of equitable
development of all the three regions of the
RC establishes
helpline for Nepal
earthquake hit
people of J&K
New Delhi, April 27:
According to Principal
Resident Commissioner, J&K
Government, all the residents
of Jammu and Kashmir whose
relatives have been affected by
the devastating earthquake in
Nepal may contact the
Numbers
011helpline
24611210, 011-24611108, 01124615475 & 011-24653913 available in the Principal Resident
Commissioner, J&K, 5-Prithvi
Raj Road, New Delhi.
People are further informed that help, if any sought
or required by the residents of
J&K coming back from Nepal
by the flight of Air India or
Aeroplane of Air Force can
contact the above mentioned
helpline Numbers.
state has been exposed by its failure to recommend Leh to be taken up under the smart
city project.
“Nobody can deny the fact that apart
from the two capital cities of Srinagar and
Jammu, Leh is the third most important city
of the State. From historical perspective Leh
used to be the centre for the traders from the
Central Asian cities of Kashgar, Khotan who
would bring their merchandise.
The traders from Tibet and the plains of
Punjab and Lahore would all meet in Leh to
barter and trade in their goods,” he said in a
statement to KNS.
“Post-independence, Leh became one of
the most important strategic towns with an
airport and other important defence establishment. Since 1975, when the area was
thrown opened to foreign tourists, Leh has
been attracting the largest number of foreign tourists,” he added.
While welcoming inclusion of
Anantnag and Katra for the smart city project , despite “not fulfilling” criteria laid
down, through relaxation citing religious
significance of the cities, “same could have
done for Leh for its importance from the perspective of tourism and historical significance.” “This only exposes the coalition government's double standard.
The promise of equitable development
and equitable share for all the three regions
that this government promised is a mere slogan and political rhetoric.
There is still time to redeem their pledge
and promise. If this coalition government
truly believes in giving all the three regions
its due, they should recommend Leh to be included for the smart city project making the
same relaxation that they have done for
Katra and Anantnag,” Jora suggested.
“Otherwise no amount of excuses will
help evade anti-Ladakh stigma to this government. Earlier they deprived Ladakh cabinet representation, now they are depriving
Ladakh of its due share by failing to include
the most important city of the region from
the smart city project,” he added. (KNS).
Students light candles, offer prayers for victims of Earthquake here in Jammu on Monday.
Inter-ministerial team
Facebook, Google tools to locate
leaves for quake-hit Nepal people in quake-hit Nepal
NEW DELHI, April 27:
An inter-ministerial team
comprising senior officials from
ministries of Home, Defence,
External Affairs and NDMA today left for Nepal to coordinate
rescue and relief operations in
the quake-hit country. Headed
by Additional Secretary in the
Home Ministry B K Prasad, the
team will also monitor the evacuation of stranded Indians in
Nepal. Sources said the team
will coordinate with the
Nepalese government in the salvage operation and assess the
damage. It will send a report to
New Delhi so that all help could
be provided to the Himalayan
nation on priority.
The decision to send the
high-level team was taken at a
meeting chaired by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. India has scaled up relief
and rescue operations in quake-
hit Nepal, deploying over two
dozen aircraft and choppers
along with nearly 1000 trained
personnel and said the situation
in the Himalayan nation was
“very, very serious”. A slew of
steps have been taken for speedy
evacuation of stranded tourists
including goodwill visas to foreigners and mobilising of buses
and ambulances to bring them
by road. India has so far deployed 13 military aircraft, three
civilian aircraft of Air India and
Jet Airways, six Mi-17 helicopters, two Advanced Light
Helicopters while two more Mi17 choppers are kept in standby.
Ten tonnes of blankets, 50
tonnes of water, 22 tonnes of
food items and two tonnes of
medicines have been flown to
Kathmandu. Three army field
hospitals and engineering task
force and medical units of civilian doctors have been sent to
Nepal. (AGENCIES)
Kathmandu, April 27:
With many searching their
loved ones after the Nepal earthquake, Google has launched its
‘person finder’ tool and
Facebook has activated its ‘safety check’ feature to help locate
and report missing persons.
Google Person Finder is an
application that helps people reconnect with friends and loved
ones in the aftermath of natural
and humanitarian disasters. In
response to Saturday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Nepal, Google
has created a dedicated handle in
its ‘Person Finder’ app to help locate and report missing persons.
A link to the application has been
provided on Google’s home page
www.google.com.np. You can
click on the ‘Resources related to
Nepal Earthquake’ link below the
search bar. The website claims
that it is currently tracking about
5,300 records, Ekantipur online
reported. One can search for a
person by clicking on “I’m looking for someone” button. If no
records are available for the person, a new ‘missing person’
record can be created. Similarly,
information on someone can be
uploaded by clicking on “I have
information on someone” button.
Here detailed information about
a person along with photo and status can be reported. A project of
Google Crisis Response, Google
Person Finder uses a common
format for sharing disaster information. The programme also has
an option to subscribe to updates
on a particular person. The tool
has become a regular feature of
recent disasters, when reliable
information is needed rapidly.
Google engineers first
launched ‘Person Finder’ in response to the 2010 earthquake in
Haiti, which killed more than
100,000 people. But it had been under development for years, part
of an open-source effort to solve a
problem identified during
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since
then it has popped up at a string
of major emergencies, everything from the 2011 Japanese
earthquake and tsunami to the
2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
It has been deployed twice before
in India, for an earthquake in
Jammu and Kashmir last year
and flooding and mudslides in
Uttarakhand a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Facebook has
also activated its “Safety Check”
feature in the wake of the earthquake in Nepal. The feature,
launched in October, allows
users to tell friends and family
they are safe if they are in the
middle of a disaster area.
Facebook engineers have developed the feature after the 2011
Japan earthquake and tsunami.
CJI refuses to be part of panel to select NJAC members
New Delhi, April 27:
In a new twist, Chief Justice of India
H L Dattu has refused to participate in a
three-member panel for selecting two
eminent persons in the six-member
Judicial
Appointments
National
Commission (NJAC) on whose validity
a constitution bench began hearings today. The five-judge constitution bench,
headed by Justice J S Khehar, which is
hearing the issue of constitutional validity of the new law on appointment of
judges to higher judiciary, was told by
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that
Dattu has written to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi that he would not participate in the meeting of the panel till the
matter is decided by the apex court.
The three-member panel comprises
Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister
and the Leader of Opposition, who are
authorised to select and appoint two eminent persons in the six-member NJAC
for appointment of judges to higher judiciary.
When it was brought to the notice of
the bench, also comprising Justices J
Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Kurian
Joseph and Adarsh Kumar Goel, it
heard the views of various senior advocates on how to proceed with the matter
taking into account that in the immediate future there would be the eventuality of appointment of existing additional
judges of the high courts whose tenures
are coming to an end. After taking note
of their views, the judges retired to their
chambers and assembled after 15 minutes. Justice Khehar said that the bench
has decided to continue with the hearing on the merits of the case and if needed it will pass an interim order.
"A consensus has emerged that we
will continue with the merits of the case
and when it is necessary we will pass an
interim order," the bench said.
The AG submitted that it is mandatory for the CJI to be the part of the panel
in selection and appointment of eminent
persons in the six-member commission.
He said a direction should be passed for
the CJI to participate in the meeting.
However, his view was not shared by
senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who is
appearing
for
Supreme
Court
Advocates on Record Association
(SCAORA), said that if the CJI is not participating, the bench can direct others to
meet and participate. The apex court al-
DB directs State to pay 2 Lacs Kashmir-origin
compensation to Acid Victim trekker killed in
Jammu, April 27:
A Division Bench of State
High Court Comprising Chief
Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar
and Justice DS Thakur after
hearing Adv BL Kalgotra directed State to pay Rs 2 lacs to Acid
Victim Girl for meeting the
medical expenses of the victim
girl and the said amount will be
adjusted while arriving at the final compensation, which may
be awarded by the Court. The
said direction issued is directed
to be complied with by the State
within two weeks from the date
of receipt of copy of this order.
This direction was passed
in a petition filed by seeking direction to pay further amount
for meeting the medical expenses of the petitioner’s daughter
viz. Raman Lata, who is a victim
of acid attack by the third respondent in May, 2012 at Bdyal
Brahmana Bus stop in R. S.
Pura town.
According to the police case
on May 26, 2012 the complainant/victim made a statement to police that when she
was returning from her
Boutique job along with her father and reached near the gate
of CHC, R.S. Pura, the petitioner
stopped her way and proposed
her for marriage. On refusal of
the complainant/victim, the petitioner threw acid on her with
intention to kill her. On the basis of this statement, the police
registered the case under FIR
No. 84/2012 for the commission
of offences U/Ss 307/341 RPC.
Counsel appearing for the
petitioner submitted that the
victim girl requires constant
medical treatment and she is being treated at Jammu and New
Delhi as major part of the body
is affected by the said acid attack. He submitted that Punjab
& Haryana High Court in similar circumstances ordered to
pay a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs as compensation as interim measure
and unless the additional compensation is ordered to be paid,
for meeting the cost of medical
treatment, the victim girl will
be put to serious sufferings.
The learned counsel ultimately prayed for giving direction to pay a substantial amount
by the State Government to
meet the medical expenses
pending further orders, which
can be adjusted when the claim
amount of Rs. 50 lakhs, as demanded in this writ petition, is
considered. JNF
Everest avalanche
Srinagar, Apr 27:
A Kashmiri mother of two
Renu Fotedar was killed in the
deadly avalanche triggered on
Mount Everest by the magnitude-7.9 Nepal earthquake,
ABC News reported.
Born in Kashmir, Fotedar
had recently moved to
Switzerland with her family
where she ran a business focusing on behavioural sciences and holistic healing.
Earlier, she completed an
MBA at the University of
Wollongong before setting up a
business in Melbourne in 2005.
“The 49-year-old was last
seen at the Everest base camp,
and since the earthquake,
friends and family had taken to
social media in a desperate attempt to find her.
“Trekking
company
Dreamers Destination confirmed to the ABC that Ms
Fotedar had been killed and
the company was trying to return her body to Kathmandu.
“Her husband has travelled to Nepal to recover her
body,” abc.net.aureported.
so sought the view of senior advocate
Ram Jethmalani, who said, that the
bench has to see if prima facie, a case for
staying the operation of NJAC Act is
made out or not.
The AG had said that barring fourfive cases, all recommendations of erstwhile collegium have been accepted.
On the issue of re-appointment or
extension of additional HC judges,
Rohatgi had said that tenures of two or
three judges of Assam High Court, seven
to eight in the Bombay High Court are
ending in June and hence, the issue be
"kept open" till May 11 as the NJAC is
likely to be constituted by May 4.
The process to appoint two eminent
persons in the six- member NJAC "will
commence shortly" and the panel is
"likely to commence working on May 4",
he had said. The bench had said that the
NJAC Act has to implement as it has neither been stayed nor set aside. Rohatgi
had refuted the submission of Nariman
that two eminent citizens, who would
become part of the NJAC, will be embarrassed if the Act is set aside and said that
they would be knowing that a litigation
is pending.
The court had also issued notices to
the Centre, all states and union territories asking them to be ready with the
matter which "purely involves questions of law". A consensus was evolved
that the petition filed by the SCAORA, in
which Nariman is appearing, will be the
lead case among the batch of petitions
challenging the validity of Constitution
(99th amendment) Act 2014 and the
NJAC Act, 2014.
Withdrawal of security from Ex-PRO to former DyCM
HC directs Secretary
GAD to file status report
on PRO’s assets
Jammu, April 27:
In a significant order
Justice Bansi Lal Bhat of J&K
High Court Jammu Wing today
in a petition filed by Prof SK
Bhalla, directed
Commissioner/Secretary GAD
to file a detail status report regarding the enquiry entrusted
to SVO into the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets of Kewal Sharma then
Additional PRO to Ex-Deputy
CM. Justice Bansi Lal Bhat after hearing Adv Sheikh Shakeel
Ahmed with Adv Rahul Raina
and Suraj Singh appearing for
the petitioner and Senior
Advocate MK Bhardwaj with
Adv Ajay Vaid appearing for
Kewal Sharma and BS Jamwal
Deputy AG appearing for the
state, granted three week’s time
to Kewal Sharma to file his reply within a period of three
weeks and directed Registry to
list this petition for further proceedings on May 21, 2015.
During the course of hearing senior Advocate MK
Bhardwaj submitted that his
client Kewal Sharma is still
having the threat perception
and directions be issued to the
police to restore the security
which has been withdrawn due
to the pendecy of this petition.
He further submitted that security had been provided to Kewal
Sharma because of threat to his
life and he still needs the security cover.
Adv SS Ahmed drew the attention of the Court to the latest
status report filed by Mukesh
Singh IGP (Personnel) PHQ in
which it was submitted that on
the verbal report lodged in po-
Rahul Gandhi to embark on Kisan
Padyatra to connect with farmers
New Delhi, April 27:
After Kisan rally, Rahul Gandhi will
now take out a Kisan Padyatra to reach out to
farmers in the backdrop of the agrarian crisis. As Congress is seeking to make land acquisition a major issue to arrest its sliding
fortunes, Gandhi's major public outreach
plan is aimed at galvanizing the party cadres
and broadening the party base among farming communities. Party sources in the party
said the Padyatra could begin either from
Vidarbha in Maharasthra or some district
including Medak from Telangana, the two regions, which have been in the news for
farmer suicides.
Gandhi will be visiting a number of districts with farmer distress in Uttar Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Punjab and Telangana. In Uttar Pradesh,
Gandhi could tavel to Bundelkhand and
Easter Uttar Pradesh. While the Congress
Vice President had in past also taken up the
issue of Bundelkhand ensuring a package for
the region during the UPA government's region, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, another region
of farmer distress is bordering Bihar where
polls are scheduled later this year.
When contacted, AICC Communication
Department in-charge Randeep Surjewala
said,"Rahul ji will be taking Kisan Padyatra
in days to come. He is going to visit all states,
which have recorded farmer distress. Details
of his programme are yet to be finalized."
Gandhi's march is being seen as an exercise to connect the party with grassroots at a
time when it faces an uphill task of revival after its worst-ever debacle in the 2014 Lok
Sabha polls in which its tally came down to a
drastic 44 from 206 it had got in the 2009 general elections. It's woes did not end there as
the defeat in Lok Sabha polls was followed in
by a series of defeats in state elections.
Congress, which was ruling in Haryana
and Rajasthan on its own and Maharashtra,
Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand in alliance, lost badly in assembly elections there
in the last one year. The party sees the mo-
GOF PHOTO
mentum generated by opposition protests to
NDA's land bill and the agrarian crisis as an
opportunity to broaden its base among the
farming communities. Senior party leader
Jairam Ramesh had drawn parallel of the agitation on farmers's issues with the historic
Chikmaglur bye-elections, which had begun
the Congress comeback.
Rahul had lauched a movement against
forcible land acquistion from Bhatta
Parasaul in Uttar Pradesh in 2011 that had
culiminated in the passage of the UPA's land
bill in 2013, whose provisions have been
changed by the NDA this time through an
Ordinance. Rahul had also launched an agitation against acquisition of land of tribals in
Niyamagiri in Odisha. His granmdother
Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi had
also launched similar mass connect programmes when the Congress was in doldrums in 1977 and 1989 and it had paid rich
dividends. The party hopes that the padyatra
will connect masses with it once again.
The last such major padyatra was taken
out by late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y
S Rajsekhara Reddy some twelve years back,
which helped the Congress to win back the
state then hit by an agrarian crisis.
Sharad Pawar had also taken out a
'shetkari dindi', a procession of farmers in
parts of Maharashtra some 30 years back
when he was in Opposition to focus on the
problems facing the farmers.
lice post Poni Chak wherein Raj
Kumari Sharma wife of Kewal
Sharma had expressed apprehension threat to the life of her
husband.
The status report further
said that then SSP Jammu Atul
Goel transferred two police officials namely Ghulam Qadir and
Kewal Shingh from police station Pacca Danga to DPL
Jammu for their further attachment as PSOs with Kewal
Sharma.
The status report further
says that on July 27, 2013 on the
verbal direction of then SSP
Jammu a guard comprising of
four officials was deputed for
the first time and said the
Guard was subsequently
changed by supplementing
with another guard comprising
of four police official and this
continued up to October 10, 2014
when on the verbal orders of the
present SSP Jammu Uttam
Chand the Guard was withdrawan.
The Status report further
said that one PSO had already
been deployed prior to this incident with Kewal Sharma on the
verbal orders of then SSP
Jammu Anand Jain with date of
deployment as December 3,
2011.
The said PSO was subsequently changed with another
PSO over the period of time and
this process of deployment continued up to October 15, 2014
when on the verbal orders of
present SSP Jammu, PSOs were
withdrawn from Kewal
Sharma.
The aforementioned court
directions were passed in the
open Court today. JNF
New transfer
policy is just
and pragmatic:
Nayeem
GOF Staff Reporter
Srinagar, April 27:
The Education Minister
reviewed the functioning of
Education department in an officers meeting at Government
College of Education and said
that the diffused focus has adversely affected our education system as infrastructural development got all the
attention and education system’s potential was not optimally used.
He said that teaching atmosphere needs to be made
conducive by giving proper attention to both teacher and
taught. Referring to new
Transfer Policy, the Minister
said that the Policy is just and
pragmatic and will redress the
problems of our teaching community who feel being held
hostage to transfers.
The Minister said that
Government will redesign and
rejuvenate the entire education system for which Policy is
being formulated.
CYM K
New Delhi, April 27:
Earthquakes don’t kill, buildings do. Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE) has pointed
out the systemic issues that result
in construction of unsafe buildings that are unable to withstand
an earthquake. Anumita
Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive
director for research and advocacy and head of its ‘green buildings’ programme, said the lack of
regulations for construction and
monitoring of buildings makes a
huge proportion of them unsafe.
“The large number of deaths in
Nepal and India should immedi-
ately lead to a reflection on the nature of our buildings, and
whether these will be able to withstand an earthquake of moderate
to high intensity,” she said. A survey by the National Disaster
Management Authority (NDMA)
has found that in the last 25 years
more than 25,000 human fatalities
were caused primarily by collapse of buildings during earthquakes. “The condition and quality of Indian building stock is poor
when it comes to seismic performance -- in fact, the observed performances of reinforced concrete
(RC) buildings are highly unsatisfactory,” said Avikal Somvanshi,
senior research associate at CSE.
Somvanshi said that during
the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, RC
buildings collapsed at an earthquake of just 6 on the Richter scale,
when a well-designed RC building
is expected to collapse only when
an earthquake is 7.5 or higher on
the Richter scale. The damage
caused to these buildings is unreasonably high compared to any other country for similar level of
ground-shaking. Thus, the housing
risk in the country should be minimized to reduce losses to life and
property in future earthquakes.
CYM K
Nepal earthquake aftermath: CSE points out
lapses in building regulations in India