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State police to bolster force
Unrest hits Kashmir’s academic calendar
Home guards get a paltry
Rs 410 per month |
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Horticulture sector seeks government support
Training programme on sheep rearing
Division of Srinagar bus stand fails to check chaos
Jammu diary
Road mishaps claim over 5,000 lives in five years
‘Ghad Batta’ connects
KPs with their roots
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State police to bolster force
Jammu, January 4 Khoda said three police stations and 67 police posts had been sanctioned for the newly established districts. “In addition to this, the government has agreed to set up five more police stations and three posts in North Kashmir,” Khoda added. He also laid stress on the modernisation of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and said a full-fledged FSL unit would be established at the Sher-i-Kashmir Police Academy, Udhampur, in a short period. “To give boost to the investigation system, these steps were required to lessen the burden on the state police,” stated Khoda. He further maintained that the government had also agreed for the reorganisation of the traffic wing, augmentation of the CID wing, institution of a welfare and benevolent fund, creation of posts for special security guards (SSG) and the adoption of the new J&K Police Act was under the active consideration. About the welfare of families of policemen who lost their lives while fighting militancy, Khoda said the department had established a Central Welfare Fund for supporting those families. “During 2010, Rs 13 crore were paid under various welfare schemes to the families of martyrs,” Khoda added. Talking about staff shortage, the DGP said the department was working on the issue. “In 2010, more than 5,700 personnel had been trained in different training institutions across the state,” he added.
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Unrest hits Kashmir’s academic calendar
Srinagar, January 4 Examinations of various classes got delayed which directly affected the results of these classes. The examinations that were scheduled to be held in June and July could not be held then and were held in October and November thus the result too got delayed. “The examination of the candidates for 10+2 biannual (private), which was being held in June, was postponed to November due to the turmoil. Some papers were held in June while some were postponed to November,” said an official of the Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education, Srinagar (JKSBOSE). The officer said in 10+2 bi-annual (private), 31,194 candidates appeared for the examination from which only 14,270 could pass the examination. “The turmoil had its affect on students and the pass percentage was only 25 per cent,” said another officer of the JKSBOSE. The officer said the results for the students of class X and 10+2 annual (regular) would also be out in a few days. “For class X annual (regular), 64,599 candidates have appeared for the examination and the result is expected to be out in the next week and for 10+2 annual (regular), 52,147 candidates appeared for the examination and the result of the same would be out within the next three weeks,” the officer said.
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Home guards get a paltry
Rs 410 per month
Jammu, January 4 For over four years, it seems that there is no end to the woes of nearly 2,000 home guards, who, amidst back-breaking inflation, feed their families on a paltry wage of Rs 410. “On December 18 last year, we read in a section of the media that the DGP had made an announcement hiking our wages to Rs 3,600 per month. The news brought cheers on our faces, but when we enquired from the civil secretariat only disappointment came our way,” said Kamla Sharma, president of the All-J&K Home Guards Welfare Association. Officials in the secretariat informed us that the government has a road map for the home guards to gradually increase their wages and there was no truth that their wages have been hiked to Rs 3,600 per month, added Kamla. “Infuriated over raw deal being meted out to us by the state government, we have now served an ultimatum to the government to resolve our issue by January 8 otherwise the agitating home guards will take to streets,” she said. On the future course of
guards would go to New Delhi for meeting parliamentarians of various political parties. “We will apprise them of the atrocities being committed on us by the state government,” she said, adding that the home guards would also approach legislators of the ruling parties and the opposition as well seeking the redressal of their grievances. “It is now over four years since we launched our protest, but paradoxically none in the government bothered about us. Neither any minister nor senior official came to us,” she said. She also demanded that the two-month training every year to the home guards, when they get Rs 135 per day, should be stopped forthwith. “They give training for a period of two months, including handling weapons, and those home guards who refuse to undergo the training are being harassed,” she said. If the government doesn’t have enough money to pay us dignified salaries then it should also stop spending on such trainings, she added. She claimed that nearly 2,000 home guards have completed 18 years of service, but till date no government in the state thought to either regularise them or hike their wages, which at least can manage them a two-square meal and other basic amenities of life. In a clear warning to the state government, she said in the ensuing Panchayat polls and the local bodies elections, the home guards would reach out to people in the entire state. “We will distribute pamphlets among the people apprising them of the atrocities being committed on us by the successive regimes, including the present coalition government,” she added. |
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Horticulture sector seeks government support
Udhampur, January 4 Jammu & Kashmir has more than 95 per cent marketable surplus in apple, pears, cherries, walnuts, almonds, pickle mango, strawberries, mushrooms, saffron, apricots and anardana. Over nine lakh families are totally dependent on the horticulture sector.
Certain areas in Jammu province are known for a very high production of good-quality fruit and vegetables. Wild pickle mangoes and citrus fruits are produced in the Akhnoor, Sunderbani and Nowshehra belt. The quality and quantity of sandy peer, peer, apricot, golden apple, anardana produced in the Rajouri-Poonch and Doda-Batote belts were remarkably high. Likewise, the Chennani-Sudh Mahadev and Marh-Akhnoor-Sunderbani belts are famous for all-season vegetables. It would not be an exaggeration to call these areas as “vegetable bowls” of J&K. The Samba-Kathua belt was known for its citrus fruits, mangoes and litchi. Ahmed said just one area marketing officer aided two assistant grading/marketing officers and three marketing inspectors were there to supervise and visit all distant rural areas of Rajouri and Poonch districts during the crucial fruit ripening season spread between four and five months. Likewise, just one assistant grading/marketing officer and two marketing inspectors had been assigned the duty of looking after the entire Kathua district spread vertically from Dayalachak (bordering Samba district) up to Lakhanpur (bordering Punjab and Himachal) and from Hiranagar up to Bani (bordering Doda district, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab). Similarly, Samba district had not got even a single assistant grading/marketing officer. The five districts of Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar had just one area marketing officer, four assistant grading/marketing officers and five marketing inspectors. The department needs to set up departmental offices at the grossroot level as well as area marketing offices at the district level. Each assistant grading/marketing office should be established at the tehsil level with one marketing inspector posted at the block level, to be assisted by one grader
acker in every panchayat. At present, all nine government wholesale fruit and vegetable markets are functioning without proper manpower at Narwal, Parampore, Sopore, Kulgam, Pulwama, Handwara, Shopian, Charar-e-Sharief and Handwara. The process for collecting licence and market fees is suffering due to the non- availability of full time staff, which were to be initially taken from the Horticulture Planning & Marketing Department. Ahmed argued that if adequate fulltime manpower was provided to these markets, these could generate enough revenue under the jurisdiction of the Horticulture Planning and Marketing Department to pay not only the salaries of the required manpower, but also contribute a lot to the state economy and development of these markets. Ahmed said it was high time that the proposal put forth by MS Qasba, Director, Horticulture Planning and Marketing Department, was given due consideration by the state government to contain the financial loss to growers and the state exchequer. |
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Training programme on sheep rearing
Jammu, January 4 The programme was inaugurated by Farooq Ahmed Khan, district development commissioner, Doda, on Monday. Dr Sajjad Kriapak, district sheep husbandry officer, Doda; Abdul Hamid, deputy director, employment, Doda; RL Waza, lead bank officer; and Mohd Isaaq Wani, chairman, Diamond Youth Club, Ghat; and other senior functionaries of the NGO, district administration and a huge gathering of sheep rearers attended the programme. Speaking about aims and objectives of the Centrally sponsored scheme, Dr Kriapak said each beneficiary had been provided a loan of Rs 1,05,000 for setting up a unit of 25 sheep or goats. According to him, the margin money to be contributed by the beneficiary for the unit was just Rs 10,000. Besides, 33 per cent subsidy was also being provided to the beneficiary by NABARD under the IDSRR scheme, he added. He said the main aim of the scheme was to boost the production of meat, wool and other related components in Doda, which is covered under the scheme. He said advanced techniques and methods would be adopted for equipping sheep/goat rearers to make them self-sufficient and to enhance the production to improve their socio-economic status. Speaking on the occasion, Farooq Ahmed Khan impressed upon the people, particularly the unemployed youth of the district, to come forward and take benefits from the self-employment schemes of various departments. He said there was a need to change the approach for sustainable and concrete socio-economic development of the region. He lauded the efforts of the NGO and the Sheep Husbandry Department, Doda, for felicitating and motivating the intending people for availing the benefits of the scheme and establishing units in there respective areas. During the programme, 25 loan cases were handed over to different bank branches of Doda by the DDC for sanctioning the loan in favour of 25 beneficiaries who intend to establish rearing units.
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Division of Srinagar bus stand fails to check chaos
Srinagar, January 4
“Earlier we had only one bus stand in Srinagar from where buses for North and South Kashmir used to originate. In order to decrease the burden on the bus stand, the government shifted the bus stand for the buses for South Kashmir to Panthachowk, but it seemed that the decision served no purpose,” said an employee of the general bus stand, Batmaloo. He said most of the space inside the bus stand in Batmaloo had been encroached by hawkers and commuters don’t find any place to move or rest inside the bus stand. “Even toilets have been encroached on and hawkers have converted them into stores. Many a times, we approached the authorities, but that was of no use,” said the employee. The other problem both bus stands are facing is that a large number of hawkers have encroached on the entrance and exit areas not only making it difficult for the buses to enter or come out of the stand, but also causing problems for private vehicles and pedestrians. “It becomes difficult to take buses out or drive them inside the bus stand as the entire area is encroached by hawkers,” said Mustaq Ahmed, a bus driver who drives a bus on Srinagar, North Kashmir route. The people here blame that though on earlier occasions, the police swung into action and had removed the hawkers from near the bus stand in Batmaloo, they again encroached on the area. “This is not the place where the hawkers should be. They have encroached the entire road making it difficult for passenger buses to move. We have been requesting the police to act and remove these encroachments, but no action has been taken in this regard,” said another employee at the bus stand. Adding to the problems of the people, Tata Sumo drivers in the area too have made an unauthorised sumo stand near the bus stand in Batmaloo. “The situation is same here at the Panthachowk bus stand. The authorities have turned out to be a mock spectator and it is the common man who suffers at the end,” said an employee at the Panthachowk bus stand.
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Jammu diary While "bijli", one of the basic amenities, plays hide and seek with the Jammuites every winter, it stares right in their face in the form of halogen lamps that remain switched on even during daytime, that too for days together. Take a drive in your car in the city in "broad daylight" and one can easily spot halogen lamps or other streetlights on. In the latest instance of "electrifying" performance of the Power Development Department (PDD,) of Prem Nagar had the privilege of enjoying "roshni" during daytime. All halogen lamps in the locality remained on for four consecutive days before the department woke up to initiate remedial steps. Haphazard parking Jammu’s bane
Haphazard parking of vehicles on main roads is one of the main reasons for frequent traffic jams in the city. The vehicles can be seen parked on both sides of the roads almost everywhere in the city, hindering the free flow of vehicular traffic. The authorities concerned should immediately take the initiative to construct parking lots in municipal wards in order to get rid from regular traffic jams, mitigating public woes. The construction of a parking lot near the market is a long-pending demand of the shopkeepers of Apsra Market, Gandhi Nagar, who are disappointed due to regular traffic jams, but none can say for sure when the demand would get fulfilled. Passenger sheds fail to serve purpose
At a time when the traffic police has been observing a road safety week in the state, most sheds made for passengers to board minibuses are not being used (See photo). People can be seen waiting for minibuses right on the roads, which often results in road mishaps. These sheds were made specifically to provide facilities to the waiting passengers and keep the roads free for smooth vehicular movement. But the money spent on these sheds seems to have gone waste as hardly anyone boards minibuses from these sheds. The cops too seem to have also forgotten to spread awareness about passenger sheds among the public even during the road safety week. (Contributed by Ravi Krishnan Khajuria, Sunaina Kaul and Archit Watts) |
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Road mishaps claim over 5,000 lives in five years
Srinagar, January 4
In 2008, the number of fatalities was 950, the same as in 2007. Nearly 1,000 persons were killed in 2006 in road mishaps across the state. Senior officials said the number of people killed in road accidents over the years is much more than those killed in militancy-related incidents as 3,183 persons, including civilians, militants and security forces personnel, were killed in the five-year period from 2006. In Srinagar city, around 400 persons have died in accidents since 2006, the lowest accident-vehicle ratio for a district in the entire state. Officials have blamed an increase in the number of private vehicles and reckless driving by poorly trained drivers as a major cause of accidents in the cities. According to figures of 2009, the total number of vehicles in the state were 6,68,445. Border districts which have poor road infrastructure and mountainous terrain have witnessed more accidents, which have caused many deaths over the years. As part of its campaign for greater awareness about road safety, the Jammu and Kashmir Traffic Department will soon organise the 22nd road safety week. — PTI
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‘Ghad Batta’ connects
KPs with their roots
Jammu, January 4 “Ghad Bhatta” is one such ritual of Kashmiri Pandits. Though after their displacement from the Valley in 1990s, most of the Pandit families have become vegetarian under the influence of the Arayan Brahmans, this ritual has survived so far. All over India and even abroad, Kashmiri Pandits perform this ritual even today. The word “Ghad Bhatta” literally means fish and cooked rice. On any Tuesday or Saturday of the dark fortnight in the lunar month of Pausha, except when there is “panchak”, fish is specially prepared and near and dear ones are invited to the dinner. First of all, a plateful of rice and fish is placed at a clean place in a room on the top floor, called “Kaeni”. This is meant for the deity of the house referred to as “Ghar Devta”. The plate is properly covered with an upturned basket and a glass of water is also placed. Some households even serve raw fish. After placing the plate at the fixed place for the deity, a feast of rice and fish is held along with near and dear ones. It is said there were eyewitness accounts that the next morning, the food served to the “Ghar Devta” was found consumed and even fish bones were found lying by the side of the empty plate. On January 1, the last Saturday of Pausha, all those families who could not perform this ritual on earlier Tuesdays or Saturdays of this fortnight performed it. “We face difficulty in getting fresh fish during this fortnight. The government has never made any arrangement for the supply of fish to us on this festival during the past two decades,” said Kishni Kumari, a housewife, who celebrated the day on January 1. “We had to visit Akhnoor for fresh and quality fish,” she added. Archana Bhat, another KP housewife, said, “The ritual is performed for the welfare of family and relations and the ancestral houses which we lost two decades ago, but we still perform this ritual with the hope to return to our homes one day and celebrate this festival with fervour”. |
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Bilal Ahmed, president of the J&K Horticulture Planning & Marketing Employees’ Welfare Forum (HPMEWF), said the state’s Horticulture Planning and Marketing Department sanctioned with 413 employees was not in a position to cater to the requirements of vegetable and fruit growers farmers. As a result, the benefits of various post-harvesting schemes were not reaching the growers. They are lagging far behind their counterparts in other parts of India with regard to storage, grading, packing and presentation of horticulture produce. 
Both bus stands in Batmaloo and Panthachowk are plagued with congestion and passengers have to face various hardships as most of the area has been encroached by hawkers and shopkeepers.
The number of people killed in road accidents in 2010 is comparatively lower than 2009 when 1,109 persons lost their lives .