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Mufti for
medical trust for poor 3 Hizb militants killed in J&K Meter installation work going on at
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Mufti for
medical trust for poor Jammu, December 11 The Chief Minister was speaking on the annual day function of Government Medical College, Jammu, this morning. The Minister for Health, Ms Suman Bhagat, The Commissioner, Secretary Health, Mr Lokesh Jha and the Principal, Government Medical College, Prof H.L. Goswami were also present on the occasion. Stressing the need for bringing common people into the ambit of financial support to meet the exorbitant expenses, the Chief Minister said though the state government had already covered its employees under the third party insurance scheme to meet the needs of their healthcare, those not in the government service and unable to meet their medical expenses needed to be helped by establishing a trust.
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3 Hizb militants killed in J&K Srinagar, December 11 The divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen Abdul Hamid alias Jamsheed Marker was killed in an encounter with the Rashtriya Rifles in the Kashtigarh area of Doda district last night, he said. A pistol and some ammunition were recovered from the slain militant, who had been evading arrest for the past 11 years and was involved in a number of incidents, including attacks on the security forces in the district, the spokesman said. Marker's bodyguard, however, escaped from the scene of the gunbattle and a hunt was on to nab him, he said. In another incident, he said a Hizbul Mujahideen militant identified as Shabir Ahmad Tantray was killed when police personnel, guarding a railway hut, opened fire in retaliation to a militant attack at Adoo in the famous health resort of Pahalgam in Anantnag district in the wee hours today. A live grenade was recovered from the possession of Tantray. The spokesman said security forces shot dead one more Hizbul Mujahideen militant during search operations at Nihalpora and arrested another in nearby Pattan in Baramula district last night. A pistol, a wireless set and six grenades were recovered from them. The spokesman said a government employee Tej Krishan, who was injured in a militant attack nine days ago, succumbed to his injuries here this morning. Meanwhile, the body of a person was recovered by the police from the Chursoo area of Awantipora in Pulwama district today, he said. In a separate incident, militants set ablaze the hijacked matador of Army Goodwill School at Bonapora-Badroo in Anantnag district last night.The matador was hijacked by militants from Akingam yesterday. He said the police recovered three hand grenades and a grenade thrower from the shop of Mohammad Amin Baba at Mian Shah Saheb in the Rainawari locality of downtown Srinagar last night. The shopkeeper was taken in custody for questioning, the spokesman said. During a search operation in the Thanamandi area of Rajouri district, he said two persons were arrested by the security forces on charges of sheltering and carrying money transactions for the ultras. — PTI
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Meter installation work going on at
a snail's pace Jammu, December 11 According to a top functionary of the department not more than 3,500 meters have been installed in the past three months against 11 lakh genuine power consumers in the state. Besides, over 10 lakh illegal power connections have been identified in the state. Taking into consideration the slow speed in which the meters were being installed, it might take a couple of years to complete the job and check the pilferage of electricity. What has baffled the people in the state was that ministers and top functionaries of the government instead of setting an example by getting the meters first installed on their own houses have got started the job from the places where common men reside. The officials of the department don't dare to venture near colonies where senior functionaries of the government reside. The move was being resented in the valley, but the authorities have started installing meters in the Gandhi Nagar and Trikuta Nagar colonies considered as posh localities of Jammu. The government had earlier announced that the work of meters installation would be assigned to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) on turnkey basis, but the proposal did not materialise as its officials were virtually hounded out by the department that did not cooperate with them even before the work was started. The Power Development Department officials point out that the NTPC was demanding 22 per-cent of the total project cost as the bill for installing meters. During a survey, The Tribune detected that officials of the department were installing meters on a selective basis in the Gandhi Nagar area. By doing so, the line staff and the meter readers were allegedly leaving room for continuing the corrupt practices. The Chief Engineer of the Power Development Department, Mr B.L. Garoo, said private parties would be asked to simultaneously undertake the job of meter installation to speed the work. About 5 lakh electronic meters were to be installed in Jammu and nearly 6 lakhs in the Kashmir valley. With the soaring percentage of electricity pilferage the government had resorted to a daily power cut of six to seven hours, he added. The state government has procured one lakh meters at a cost of Rs 10 crore. However, these had been lying in the stores of the department as during the National Conference regime the Congress had alleged that these meters were faulty. Soon after the PDP-Congress coalition came into power, a committee of ministers was set up to have a look at these meters. The extent of electricity leakage can be gauged from the official figures that indicate that against the consumption of 2577.40 million units between April 2003 to January 2004 in the Kashmir valley, of Rs 69.82 crore (including Rs 35 crore from government offices) was recovered. Against this, a tariff of Rs 116.74 crore (including Rs 35.39 crore from government offices) was recovered in the Jammu region. |
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