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Imported toys being sold illegally in Jammu markets
Rise in Number of Beggars
Insurance plan for KPs fails to take off
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Traffic police tightens noose around violators in Jammu
Coaching centres attract students from Valley
srinagar DIARY
Alternative methods of treatment getting popular in Valley
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Imported toys being sold illegally in Jammu markets
Jammu, December 23 Most of these items do not meet international standards and are hazardous for the safety and health of tiny tots. Strangely, these imported toys are being brought to the state without a verification certificate. Sources said the State Legal Metrology Department, in its recent drive, found that such toys were being sold mostly in the old city areas which include Malhotrain Street, Kanak Mandi and Dalpatian Mohalla. Operated by remote controls and dry batteries, made of toxic elements like cadmium and lead, sleuths of the department seized all those toys which were illegally imported here. These toys were also not carrying the name of the importer and relevant information about the consumer helpline as required under the Central Package Commodity Rules 1977, the sources said. Admitting that the sale and purchase of such toys was continuing here clandestinely for quite some time, an official of the Metrology Department impressed upon the general public to ensure that such packets contained necessary details like the name of the importer, date of manufacture, maximum retail price, besides age group which were also prerequisite under various consumer acts and safety guidelines. The official said since most of the imported toys were functioning on dry pencil and button cells, there were chances of such items turning hazardous since kids had a general tendency to swallow these toys. The Customs Department should ensure that such goods did not enter into the state, the official said. He also cautioned the people to desist from purchasing such toys. Similarly, a number of imported confectionery items like toffees, candies, lollipops and chocolates were also clandestinely sold here. These items also did not carry labels informing manufacture and expiry dates, the official added.
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Rise in Number of Beggars
Jammu, December 23 While there has been an alarming increase in the number of beggar children in the capital city in the past few months, the state government, particularly the Social Welfare Department, seems least concerned about the social evil. Surprisingly, the department has not deemed it fit to conduct any survey of beggar children in the state. Highly placed sources said many forums, including NGOs, and even a few government institutions had many a time sought details about the number of beggars and beggar children in the city from the Social Welfare Department, but to no avail. “Many queries were received in this connection but the Social Welfare Department till date has not conducted any survey and, hence, no data is available with us,” said an official. Insiders said the issue was never even discussed in meetings and even the higher ups had never paid any heed to the matter. Tasleem Kousar, president of Beggar Girls’ Welfare Association, the only NGO in the city working for the welfare of beggar girls, said, “It is really shocking that the count of beggar children has risen alarmingly in the past few years. I had started this NGO about three years ago, but with each passing day I see new faces being pushed into the trade. I feel there is some nexus behind small children being forced into begging”. “I have been told many a time that some people are running an illegal trade pushing children into begging. They bring these children from other states to exploit them and most of them are girls,” Kousar added. “This afternoon, I came across a small girl, who after proper make up in the form of a goddess deity, was seeking alms in a market. Her eyes had turned yellow and I doubt she might have been suffering from jaundice,” she said. Sheikh Shakeel, a High Court lawyer, said according to the J&K Juvenile Justice Act-1997, the government might establish and maintain as many juvenile homes as would be necessary for neglected juveniles. Children rights activist and member of District Juvenile Welfare Board Deepika Singh Rajawat said a child found begging fell within the purview of the J&K Juvenile Justice Act-1997. She said despite directions of the J&K High Court the state government had failed miserably to implement the Act in letter and spirit. No doubt the government had established one observational home but that was meant for children, who were undertrial, she added. She regretted that the government had neither conducted any survey nor maintained any figures about beggar children. Minister for Social Welfare Sakina Ittoo said the state government had no plans up its sleeves to come up with a home for beggar children. “We have no project in pipeline for making any special home for beggar children. Fortunately, children from our state are not involved in begging and those, who do it, are from other states,” she said. However, she added that the government was serious in tackling the issue.
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Insurance plan for KPs fails to take off
Jammu, December 23 Since the mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) from Valley in 1989, the government had decided to bring KPs under the health insurance cover immediately, benefiting 17,000 displaced families. The government had issued many notices in the newspapers but failed to gather public support for the scheme. As per the government notification, under the ‘Group Heath Insurance’, the premium payable was to be equally shared by the migrant families and the state government. The announced ‘Group Insurance’ would cover five members of a family comprising husband, wife, one of their parents and two children. The whole exercise was estimated to incur cost of about Rs 11.50 crore per annum for the state government. Veer Ji Saraf, spokesperson, Roots in Kashmir, while talking to The Tribune said, “A few advertisements do not bring plans into action. The government failed to convince the people about the benefits of the insurance plan. They needed to create awareness among the people about the plan but they did not”. Relief Commissioner, Jammu, Vinod Koul said, “We did not receive support from the people. We had sent notices to the camp presidents but that did not work. So the plan could not materialise. May be the reason was that we had offered to pay only 50% of the money and rest they had to pay themselves”. “We will again work out on the same plan. We will advertise more in the newspapers for the applications who want to avail the benefit,” he added. The benefit of health insurance cover was only for the KPs falling under ‘relief category’. The displaced KPs are categorised into two groups, Relief and Non-Relief. The non-relief category covers the KPs having one of their family members in government job while the KP families falling under ‘relief’ category are those having no member of the family in government service. Official figures indicate that around 35,000 displaced KP families are registered with the state Relief and Rehabilitation Department. As many as 350,000 Kashmiri Pundits fled their home and hearth in the ‘80s and are living like refugees in one-room tenements in different migrant camps located in the outskirts of Jammu.
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Traffic police tightens noose around violators in Jammu
Jammu, December 23 It has initiated a slew of measures to crack down on violators, especially those who have been caught more than two times for flouting traffic norms. Official sources told The Tribune that the state government had directed the traffic police to adopt a ‘proactive’ approach to bring down the graph of road accidents and deaths taking place in such mishaps. “The traffic scenario in the winter capital city paints a grim picture. The road users lack the sense of responsibility and road safety norms are being violated with impunity. All major road mishaps in recent past took place due to either utter violation of traffic norms or poor condition of roads,” a senior traffic police official said. He said 157 lives were lost in 1,344 road mishaps, including 132 fatal and 1,212 non-fatal in Jammu district till October. “Over 1,600 persons were injured -some of them even rendered disabled permanently-in these mishaps,” he said. The official said despite issuing a significant number of challans, the situation was still “nerve-racking”. “On an average, 11,000 road users are being slapped with fine for violations of traffic rules on a monthly basis. A total of 1, 07,330 vehicles were challaned till October this year,” he said. Sources said the Traffic Police Department had also been facing an acute shortage of manpower, which was hampering its functioning adversely. “The department has only 300 traffic cops available to control over five lakh vehicles (on an average one cop controls 1,750 vehicles) in the winter capital. In the backdrop of the grim situation, the department has initiated some harsh measures to improve the system,” the sources added. Manmohan Singh, SSP (Traffic), Jammu, said, “The department has planned to enhance ‘on-the-spot’ challan up to Rs 500 even for minor violations of road safety rules. It is being done to make people realise that they should take extra care while driving on busy roads,” he said. The SSP said the department had also deployed three special cranes to tow away illegally parked vehicles from the public places and roads in the city. “The new cranes with under-lift hydraulic facilities have been deployed in Jammu city and these will cause no damage to the vehicle during its lifting,” he said. He said the traffic police had also decided to take action against truck drivers who parked their vehicles illegally in residential colonies and congested roads of the city. “We have intensified drive against the misuse of red flasher light atop vehicles. An SRO has been issued in this regard which authorises the use of Red Flasher Lights on the top of the vehicles by the high dignitaries and officers besides vehicles of some emergency services. We will book and slap heavy fine if anyone found guilty,” he added.
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Coaching centres attract students from Valley
Jammu, December 23 Every year thousands of Kashmiri families come to Jammu to avail the facility of coaching classes for their children appearing in various professional and administrative examinations. Shazia Mehmood, a student preparing for her medical entrance exam, feels that shifting to Jammu in winter is one of the best options that a student has. “It is quite difficult for us to study properly in the cold. Due to shutdowns and curfews, it is impossible to complete the course in time and the cold winter adds to the misery,” she added. Irfan, a Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) aspirant said, “I had initially joined a coaching centre in Kashmir. The institute promised to get experts and resource persons from Delhi for guest lectures and special training, but that never happened”. Academicians in Delhi and other parts of the country shy away from the Valley due to fear psychosis, which is at times fuelled by media reports. “When I shifted to Jammu, academic atmosphere here was much better. We have a specialised teaching staff here,” he said. But this temporary migration of students from the Valley to Jammu is never a cakewalk as the environment, culture, weather and language are totally different. Adjusting to a different town for few months or a year is quite a challenge for the young students. “I am not the first one in my family to come to Jammu. It is a trend in our family, the children after finishing exams take coaching in Jammu during winter,” said Iqra Iqbal, another student from the Valley. “We also have an option of going to Delhi but that is not feasible as Delhi is an unfamiliar place for most us and very far,” she added. Owner of a coaching centre in Jammu cited three reasons for the temporary migration-- One the good quality of education, second the peaceful environment as compared to the Valley and thirdly the harsh winter in Kashmir.
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srinagar DIARY It is generally observed that most of the customers do not follow rules and more than one person is seen waiting inside the enclosure if there is provision of a single ATM. Sometimes the other person stands close to the machine while one is withdrawing money. Many of the ATM enclosures stink so badly making it difficult for the customers to remain inside till the transaction is complete. The space available for guards is generally not clean. One can see his belongings or bedding used during night hours. The bank staff must ensure cleanliness of the place. Reserved for ladies In most private buses that ply on the city roads, one usually comes across the sign: Reserved for ladies. These words can be found written on top of the windows of the first three rows (right hand side) of the bus. Unfortunately, not a single bus follows the practice. The mini buses that ply across the city roads can accommodate 20 persons (sitting only) and therefore reserving six seats for the ladies should not be a problem. However, neither the driver or the conductor nor the passengers adhere to the direction. There is no check from the government authorities to ensure that the ladies get to sit on the reserved seats. Therefore, the authorities should pass orders to the bus operators to ensure that the directive is adhered to. Also, it should depute some officials to make sure that the orders are implemented. (Contributed by Ehsan Fazili
& M Aamir Khan)
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Alternative methods of treatment getting popular in Valley
Srinagar, December 23 The hospital has treated more than 1, 20,000 patients since its establishment at the valley’s tertiary hospital about three years ago. “We had set up this unit three years ago and so far we have treated at least 1,20,000 patients. Another AYUSH unit at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Rainawari hospital also witnesses a heavy rush of patients,” said Dr Mushtaq Ahmad, in charge of the AYUSH unit at the SMHS hospital. Stating that most of the patients visited the AYUSH centre to seek treatment for joint pains, hyperacidity and hypertension, he said the patients preferred non-allopathic treatments because it had lesser side effects. A patient, who received cupping therapy at the hospital, said, “I was suffering from joint pain for a long time and the allopathic treatment only gave me temporary relief. The medicines prescribed gave me stomach problems. But after taking this therapy for a few weeks, I feel better.” Another patient, who was suffering from a skin disease, got cured after he was given leech therapy. “I took allopathic medicines for almost two years as I was suffering from acute skin infection involving my legs. The medicines would cure the infection but it always relapsed. After taking leech therapy, I finally got cured,” he said. Encouraged by the good response, Mushtaq said they were regularly incorporating new forms of alternative treatments at the AYUSH unit. “After we introduced cupping therapy almost a year ago, it became extremely popular among patients with joint pains. Recently, we introduced steam therapy and ‘kshar-sutra’ and it has also received good response,” he said. “Kshar-sutra is an alternative to allopathic surgeries. Its success rate is 98.9 per cent with no chances of recurrence. The surgeries done through kshar-sutra do not result in bleeding either,” he added. The patients also visit the SMHS Hospital for alternative treatment because the medicines are provided free of cost as a part of the Government of India’s (GoI) efforts towards promoting AYUSH.
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Packed in fancy and attractive cardboard wrappers, imported toys and confectionery items are being sold clandestinely in various markets here.
Most of these items do not meet international standards and are hazardous for the safety and health of tiny tots.
Jammu, December 23
Nothing seems to have remained untouched by information technology taking new strides each day. For instance withdrawal of cash from banks. One does not need to queue up at the banks facing the constraint of time, but can easily access ATMs anywhere and everywhere (see pic). At certain peak hours and during festivals, ATMs remain busy with a long queue of customers. While transacting, customers need to follow certain rules while the concerned banks also need to provide adequate facilities like machines in order and covered and clean enclosures.