Vijaypur, August 28
The government hospital here appears to have been established merely by an accident. This is what the official records and the signboard suggest.

However, this “accidental” hospital, set-up on the busy Jammu-Pathankot national highway, was supposed to provide emergency medical care to the victims of road mishaps.

A billboard erected by the hospital authorities claims that the institution has the expertise of even a gynecologist, an ophthalmologist and a dental surgeon. However, in the absence of such facilities, which are a prerequisite for any trauma or emergency ward, the very purpose of the hospital gets defeated and its existence has remained merely “accidental”.

As per the official records, no major accident case has so far been treated or referred to this hospital that has an ill-equipped small operation theatre and no provision for a blood bank. This has even been pointed out by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in its previous report on the functioning of the J&K hospitals.

Dr Anup Manhas, posted at the hospital, admitted that the nomenclature of the hospital sounded awkward. “In fact, such hospitals, set up at a distance of every 30 km on the national highways, are denoted either emergency or trauma hospitals. It is a mystery, how the word “accidental” hospital crept into the official records,” he said.

Dr Manhas claimed that the 10-bed hospital had all kinds of facilities to deal with routine and poor patients, whose attendants could not afford to shift them to Jammu, 30 km from here. He, however, admitted that the paucity of space and the approach road were major hurdles in making the hospital fully operational.

Sources said the construction of a new building had begun over five years ago. However, no work could take place during the past four years owing to some administrative reasons, they added.

Dr Naresh, in-charge medical officer of the hospital, however, hoped that the new building would be made operational within two months, as the work had started.

He admitted that the operation theatre was not fully equipped to treat critical accident victims, for which the hospital was set up. “We can just provide first-aid facilities, although we have an orthopedic and a general surgeon on our rolls,” he said.

Naresh wished that the authorities should rename the hospital as the present name definitely did not sound well.

Udhampur, August 28
For 30 boys belonging to destitute families, a hostel, established by the Army in 1998 under the aegis of operation Sadbhavna, has proved a blessing as these children got a place to live and continue their studies.

The Army under the Northern Command had opened the hostel for boys belonging to economically weaker sections of society, particularly Gujjars and Bakerwals, to give them an opportunity to progress in life.

Col Harpreet Singh, who apart from commanding a unit looks after the hostel, says, “The hostel was established in 1998 with the aim of overall development of the poor children”. He says, “At present, we have 30 children in the hostel, most of whom belong to the Gujjar or Bakerwal community while some children belong to militancy affected families”. The hostel provides all necessary facilities free of cost to the children, including accommodation, meals, recreation and education.

“The children are looked after very well. We provide them education, meals, clothing, recreational facilities and everything they need for their development as good human beings,” says Col Harpreet Singh. “We have 10 computers here and a computer instructor visits in the evening to provide training to the children,” he says, adding that the Army also provides musical training to the hostel inmates.

“We have a recreational room wherein an instructor comes and provides training on musical instruments to the boys”. He says, “We send the students of higher classes to private coaching institutes so that they could compete with other students”.

The boys are also happy with their stay in the hostel as they say their life would have been ruined had the Army not come to their rescue. “We owe everything to the Army, which is not only providing us education but also looking after everything we need,” said Fazal Elahi, a Gujjar student living in the hostel.

Jammu, August 28
Even as Ashok Gupta, Inspector-General of Police, Jammu region, recently sought cooperation of people to curb crime in the state, incidents of chain snatching continue to show an upward trend in the winter capital and its outskirts.

In the past three days, as many incidents happened in Trikuta Nagar, Muthi and Gandhi Nagar, besides a stabbing incident in Chatha.

Though the Jammu police claimed that it had been doing everything possible to check the incidents of chain snatching in Jammu district having a population of 18 lakhs, women in the capital city now feel insecure.

Not going too far down the memory lane, even deputy chief electoral officer Harcharan Singh’s spouse Sukhwinder Kour had to swallow the bitter pill on March 17 when two motorcycle-borne youth snatched gold chain from her in the Sainik Colony area.

On March 18, two youth targeted another housewife, Chand Sharma, in Upper Roop Nagar and on April 15, at least four other women were targeted in different areas of the temple city.

“We now feel insecure even in our homes as chain snatchers are now forcing their entry into houses to commit the crime,” said Meenakshi Gupta, a housewife in Upper Roop Nagar. She recollected the incident of Chand Sharma when the housewife was robbed of her gold chain by two motorcycle-borne youth outside her house.

“If some armed youth can loot a jewellery shop in the heart of the city in New Plots, then women are soft targets for the criminals,” 
she added.

“By citing population figures and shortage of staff, the police can’t escape from its responsibility,” said Deepshikha Mahajan, a Jammu University student.

She said besides awareness campaigns, the police should also deploy more patrol parties and flying squads to nab the culprits.

“The chain snatchers have now started entering our houses to commit the crime, a cosmopolitan phenomenon, which hitherto had never been witnessed or heard in Jammu,” she said.

Hence, the police should wake up to the situation and resort to effective policing before Jammu also becomes a city of criminals, she said.

A barber, whose wife was also targeted in the New Plots area by chain snatchers, said by citing shortage of staff the police could not escape from its responsibility.

However, the police had been educating people, particularly women, to deal with the situation.

“Apart from keeping notorious characters under constant surveillance, besides deploying cops in civvies in different areas, we also randomly tap phone calls of suspected elements,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.

“In some areas we also deploy female cops in civvies with flying squads under camouflage at a suitable distance to nab such criminals,” he added.

Devotees worship during Mela Patt in Bhaderwah.

Udhampur, August 28
Bhaderwah, which is known as mini-Kashmir, is also famous as the land of snakes where “naag puja’ is not only an important aspect of its culture but also an inseparable part of the lives of its people.

The famous Vaisku Naag Temple here is the most revered shrine of this region. Mela Patt, which begins on “Naag Panchami” every year, is a festival devoted to Lord Vasuki Naag, the presiding deity of the Bhaderwah valley.

This festival begins after the completion of the Kailash Yatra, which is also devoted to Vasuki Naag. During the months of July, August and September, people of Bhaderwah observe festivals devoted to snake gods.

Mela Patt is celebrated every year to commemorate the historic meeting of Emperor Akbar and Raja Nagpal of Bhaderwah in the 16th century. According to legend, Raja Nagpal first initiated this mela in the 16th century as the ruler of the then small principality of Bhaderkashi.

It is now known as Bhaderwah. Every year, Mela Patt is organised here after the end of the Kalash Yatra and people of all castes participate and witness the occasion.

Although it is purely a Hindu festival, Muslims of Bhaderwah overwhelming participate in this event which is part of the Bhaderwahi culture. A majority of people, irrespective of their caste, creed and religious, actively participate in this cultural-cum-religious evens.

Dhakku dance, which is religious in inspiration and characteristically devotional in nature, is presented by the people of both religions. Since centuries, people of both communities have been celebrating this festival together.

According to another legend, many centuries ago, the Rajput ruler of Bhaderwah, childless for several years, was blessed by Vasuki Naag, with a son. Nag Pal, the son, succeeded his father to the throne of Bhaderwah and had become Raja Nag Pal. Once Mughal Emperor Akbar summoned all his feudatories to his darbar in Delhi.

Since Bhaderwah, like the rest of Kashmir, had come under the Akbar's authority, Raja Nag Pal was forced to attend the Akbar’s darbar. While other Kings bowed before the emperor, Raja Nag Pal alone refused as never bowed before any body except “Vasuki Naag”.

Akbar is said to have been so impressed with Raja Nag Pal's boldness that he gave him several costly gifts, including gold and silver umbrellas, drums and ornaments as a token of his pleasure.

On returning to Bhaderwah on the occasion of “Naag Panchami”, Raja Nag Pal gave those presents to the temple of Vasuki Naag. It is in memory of their king and his bravery that for almost 400 years Mela Patt has been held every year at Bhaderwah.

Mendhar (Poonch), August 28
As India and Pakistan seek to revive the “almost dead” ties following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks last year, the divided families are keeping a close watch on the situation that may improve in the coming months. 

For the divided families here, the restoration of the ties between India and Pakistan means a lot as the governments of both the countries are likely to take many a steps, like triple-entry permit and issuance of travel permit by the deputy commissioner of the respective district, which will make their travel across to PoK through the trans-LoC Poonch-Rawlakote Road to meet their divided family members easier and less time consuming.

Presently, it takes years for a member of the divided family to get a permit to travel across to PoK to meet his separated family member who got separated from him during the Partition, 1965 and 1971 wars.

For the past more than two years, Rajive Gupta is trying hard to get a travel permit to meet his paternal aunt Manzoora Begum (69)(before separation from her parents her name was Ayodhya Devi). Rajive had applied for travel permit in January 2007 to meet his aunt, but he is yet to get the same.

“My aunt got separated from our family during the Partition. She was just seven-year-old when she wandered across to PoK from Nowshera where our ancestors used to live. Manzoora told us that after moving to PoK, she, due to the fear of getting killed by Pathans, got converted to Islam and married one Raja Raheem Dar of Ratta village in Kotli district of PoK. Since then, she is living there,” says Rajive, who runs a dhaba in the main market of Mendhar town.

“She, along with her husband, came here about a year ago, but we were not happy with the duration of their stay and wished that they would have stayed for more days. A few months ago, we heard that her condition is critical. Now I wish I would get my permit soon so that I could be with her in her last days,” he said.

Rajive adds: “I tried to track the status of my form from PoK, but the authorities there told my uncle (Manzoora’s husband) that they are yet to get my form for verification from India.

Now I am trying to locate my form here in India, but I strongly believe that like thousands of file which gather the dust in government offices, my form will also be dumped by the authorities in some office dealing with the travel permits”.

“I hope that better sense prevails on the authorities dealing with the travel permits and I pray to God that I get permission to meet my aunty. We, the divided families, are also praying for the revival of ties between India and Pakistan so that our travel across the LoC is simplified and procedure to get travel permission becomes less time consuming,” he adds.

Intelligence sources confirmed that it takes years for the divided family members wishing to travel across the LoC, to meet their separated family members, to get travel permission as it involves verification from many agencies in both the countries.

They added that already there were more than 3,000 cases of divided family members from twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, who wish to travel across to PoK on the Poonch-Rawlakote cross-LoC Road, pending and the Pakistani Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is yet to give travel permission to them.