Jammu, June 19
The power supply will remain affected across Jammu region on June 21 and 22 from 8 am to 6 pm. The announcement has been made in the wake of the shutdown of two circuits of 400 KV Baglihar-Kishenpur Transmission Line and 220 KV D/C KPTL between Udhampur and Ramban to carry out rectification work.

The power supply will remain affected in all areas of Jammu province and rotational curtailment shall be enforced.

Similarly, in order to carry out the branch cutting and restoration of D-6 feeder upto PHE and radio station, the power supply to Chowgan Salathia, DBN area, Chowk Chabutra, Upper Bazaar, Pacci Dhak, Jhullaka Mohalla, Kachi Chawani, Afghana Mohalla and Naranian Mohalla fed from 11 KV feeders D-1, D-3, D-5 and D-6 emanating from 33/11 KV R/stn Dhounthly shall remain affected on June 20 from 6 a m to 11 a m.

Meanwhile, in order to carry out cutting of tree branches, creation of isolation points, replacement of tilted HT poles, the power supply to New Rehari, Rehari Chungi and Exchange Road fed from 11 KV feeder S-4 feeder emanating from Secretariat receiving station shall remain affected from June 21 to 25 from 7 am to 10 am daily.

In order to remove the snag from 132 KV D/C Gladni Sidhra transmission line emanating from 220/132/66 KV Grid Station Gladni, the shutdown to Sidhra, Janipur, Jhajjar Kotli and adjoining areas shall remain affected on June 20 from 6 am to 7 am.

Reasi, June 19
Over 8.71 lakh pilgrims from various parts of the country visited the historic Shiv Khori cave shrine situated in the Sanger hills of Pouni block in Reasi district till June 19 as against 6.41 lakh pilgrims during the corresponding period last year, thus registering an increase of 36 per cent.

Inderjeet, Executive Officer of the Shri Shiv Khori Shrine Board (SSKSB) announced this in Reasi today.

The official said the tile work on 3 km long track from village Ransoo, the base camp of Shri Shiv Khori Shrine Cave, has been also completed and the work on construction of five multi-storeyed waiting hall near the cave is at its final stage.

SSKSB is also making all-round efforts to provide more infrastructural facilities to the pilgrims at the base camp and at the cave site. A number of development works have been initiated in this regard.

1,31,193 pilgrims visited the shrine in June and over 4,000 pilgrims are visiting the shrine to offer prayers every day. The destination is emerging now as the second largest pilgrimage destination in the Reasi district after Shri Mata Vaishni Devi shrine.

Other pilgrimages like Aghar Jitto, Nav Mata, Danser Baba, Dera Baba, Siar Baba, Kakala Mata temple, Mahadev temple, Chenana Devta Salal, Zirat Jandi Morh and Zirah Simle Choa are also witnessing heavy rush of devotees these days.

Reasi, June 19
An unabated release of pollutants in Unni nullah is killing hundreds of fish in the water body. The nullah is located near Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.

Liquid waste being released upstream from open drains and barrages has deteriorated the quality of the river water to the extent that the water is not even suitable for bathing let alone drinking purpose.

The death of hundreds of fish that are now floating on the surface of the river has raised an alarm among the local residents.

Even more alarming are the reports that some people are collecting these fish and selling them in the market which could lead to the spread of some disease here.

“The chemicals that have been getting mixed with the nullah water caused death of the fish in the river. It is even more unfortunate that the locals living on banks of the nullah are taking the fish and selling in the market. This could lead to spread of disease," said an anxious Sham Singh, a local resident.

Some of the dead fish are big in size which again is one reason that the locals were tempted to sell in the market.

"We have been observing for last couple of days that fish are dying in large number,” said Vijay, another resident from the village.

In a recent study, the Central Pollution Control Board had stated that around 70 per cent of pollution in the Unni nullah was directly being caused by humans.

Ramban, June 19
The District Development Board, Ramban, today approved Rs 70.42 crore annual plan for the district for the current fiscal. The board had its meeting here under the chairmanship of Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Raman Bhalla.

Urging to make extra efforts to accomplish the targets with optimum utilisation of funds, Bhalla called upon the officials to concentrate on growth of underdeveloped and backward areas of the district which was one of the main agendas of the state government. He said the government was committed to develop hilly and far-off areas of the district with better civic amenities, adding that massive development activities have been launched to ensure effective development of every corner of the district.

The minister directed the officers to ensure timely completion of various road projects taken up under PMGSY, besides settlement of all pending land compensation cases acquired under the programme.

The minister said the government was endeavouring to create revenue infrastructure in every nook and corner of the state with special emphasis on computerisation of all land records. He said that efforts were being made to streamline the revenue-related services to make the system less cumbersome for the common people and ensure precision in the maintenance of records.

The minister added the department was also distributing revenue passbooks to farmers containing all records pertaining to their land to ensure transparency at the grassroots level.

The District Development Commissioner gave a detailed report on the physical and financial achievements. He said that funds to the tune of Rs 23.47 lakh have been spent for agriculture, Rs 34.97 lakh under horticulture, Rs 8.20 lakh under soil conservation, Rs 13.36 lakh under animal husbandry besides Rs 31.23 lakh under sheep husbandry sectors during the past fiscal.

Jammu, June 19
To put restriction on the rising prices and meet the deficit in the vegetable production in urban centers, Jammu and Kashmir has received Rs 12 crore under the Centrally Sponsored Vegetable Initiative for Urban Clusters (VIUC).

The project is being implemented in the twin capitals, Jammu and Srinagar. Each city will receive Rs 6 crore each as the major consumers of the green crop in the state are prone to the inflation.

The scheme will cover several fronts including production, logistics, covering post harvest handling, storage, transportation, marketing, distribution and policy reform.

“Farmers will be provided with hybrid seeds, seedlings, training and processing and cold storage facilities on subsided rates. It also envisages dissemination of information about the items with greater demand in the market,” said an official.

The programme would be launched near the major urban centers as the availability of vegetables at affordable prices to the urban consumers presently many challenges.

Officials said that the project launched across the country is aimed at meeting the demands of vegetables in all state capitals and urban centers with population greater than 10 lakh.

When contacted president J&K Flower Growers Association president Tejinder Singh said that it is a good initiative which can change the vegetable production scenario of the state. “Due to rising demand farmers need to adopt new techniques to increase production and this scheme can help them in a big way. We hope that its implementation will be faster,” Singh said.

Jammu, June 19
BJP Mahila Morcha national president and MP Smriti Irani will court arrest in Jammu on Friday (June 22) as a part of countrywide jail bharo andolan being observed by the party. This was disclosed here today by BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas while presiding over a joint meeting of different wards of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) where he received a detailed report of the preparations made by the party cadre by the preparations of jail bharo being observed on June 22.

Manhas said the party’s central leadership has decided to mobilise the public and send a strong message that the Congress-led UPA government has failed on all fronts and has broken all records of corruption, scams and price-rise. He said that on June 22 in every state, the party workers have planned to court arrest in hundreds and thousands to register their protest against the continuance of UPA government.

Manhas said the state unit of the party has chalked out a programme of arrests by its leaders at all the district headquarters of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the people were fed up with the wrong policies of the UPA which have led to repeated hike in petrol, diesel and LPG prices.

Jammu, June 19
The 3rd J&K Bank Mughal Rally will be held from June 30 - July 1. Launched in 2010 as a rally for SUVs and cars, the Mughal Rally has already emerged as one of the biggest events on the Indian motor sporting circuit.

In all, 17 bikers have entered the Mughal Rally this year who are looking forward to take on the historical Mughal Road. Of the 105 teams participating, the Four Wheeler Xtreme has 50 SUVs and cars while the rest fall into the Enduro category. The XTreme is the out-and-out speed category while the Enduro follows the Time-Speed-Distance format.

The Mughal Rally will be organised by the Shimla based motorsport club- Himalayan Motorsport Association, whose flagship event is the Raid-de-Himalaya which takes place annually every October. Club President, Vijay Parmar said the Bikes and Quads have been included this year in the Mughal Rally on popular demand.

Jammu, June 19
The Department of Urdu, University of Jammu added another feather to its cap as 26 students were declared qualified for NET and JRF examination.

The vice Chancellor of Jammu University Prof MP Singh Ishar congratulated the students and department of Urdu for this grand success.

Saleem Ahmed who has qualified the JRF said that this credit goes to the present HoD Urdu Prof Shohab Inayat Malik, who not inspired them but also organised very meaningful extension lecturers from the external experts during the last three years.

Another student, Chaman Singh said that there is a great academic atmosphere in the department. “We are not only being taught books but the literary activates which are being organised in the department are the great source of inspiration for qualifying this test,” Singh said.

Another scholar, Sunil Kumar said, “It would not have been possible for me to qualify this prestigious exam, if the lecturer of reputed Urdu scholars were not organized”.

The HOD Urdu Prof Shohab Inayat Malik and Faculty members included Prof Sukhchain Singh, Dr Muhammad Reyaz Ahmed, Dr Chaman lal, Dr A R Manhas and Dr Farat Shamim too congratulated the students for their great success.

Jammu, June 19
The J&K State Sports Council has issued a stern warning and made it clear that the defaulter associations with respect the furnishing of outstanding audited accounts, conduct of domestic activities at District and State level and breach of constitutional provisions or violation of Sports Council guidelines will not be eligible for any kind of grant-in-aid for deployment of teams in Nationals.

There are total 48 associations affiliated with the J&K State Sports Council but the emerging of many parallel associations has compounded to the miseries of Sports Council which finds it difficult to distribute grant-in-aid to the associations for conducting domestic activities.

The State Sports Council gets an annual grant of Rs 50 lakh from the State Government to distribute it among the affiliated associations besides an additional grant of Rs 50 lakh for hosting events of national repute in multi-disciplines.

The Sports Council has taken the hard stand after observing that some interested individuals are organising tournaments in various disciplines at domestic and National level besides conducting selections trials and sending teams for national level tournaments which are yet to be recognised by the J&K State Sports Council or Government of India or even by the Indian Olympic Association.

When contacted, Kiran Wattal, Secretary, J&K State Sports Council said “The certificates, medals and positions achieved by sportspersons in these games organised by interested individuals later become a case of disputed eligibility, especially, when the candidates approaches the Sports Council for sports category benefits”.

“Such associations not only mislead the budding players and their parents but also bring a bad name to the State”, he added.

Wattal said, “It has been observed that some individuals approach various organisations in different capacities and invite players for participating in these unauthorised tournaments”, Secretary, Sports Council said.

Jammu, June 19
The Academic Council of Jammu University has given its nod to establish University Institute of Engineering Technology (UIT) in the main campus, which will offer B Tech and M Tech in Electronic and Communication and Computer sciences.

The decision was taken during a meeting of council chaired by Vice-Chancellor, MP S Isher. It was also resolved to introduce various courses at main and off-site campuses that comprises of MA programme in Defence and Strategic Studies, MA programme in Rural Development, M.Sc in Sericulture in Poonch Campus, B.Sc Honours in Chemistry, M Sc Food Science & Technology, M Sc in Forestry, M Phil Bio-informatics, M Ed Inclusive Education and one year PG Diploma in clinical Psychology.

Apart from this a two year PG Diploma in Sports Psychology, three years PG Diploma in Counselling and Physiotheraphy, MA Economics (with specialization in Public Policy), M Phil Library Science, MA Public Administration, MBA in International Business Programme was approved by AICTE, M Sc in applied Mathematics, PG Diploma in Composite culture management (one year) at International Centre for Cross Cultural Research and Human Resource management will also be offered by the University.

Academic Council also nominated Prof Kuldeep K Sharma, Head of Zoology Department as a member of syndicate for the triennial period of 2012-15.

The academic council, however, did not grant approval to start those courses at the private affiliated colleges which are not being run by the University Post-Graduate Departments, Offsite Campuses, Government Colleges and Permanent affiliated Colleges.

Jammu, June 19
The Power Development Department (PDD) has sought public cooperation to help the department in maintaining the grid discipline and cope with the low frequency by using the power judiciously.

The PDD authorities have appealed the consumers to bear the rotational curtailments which the department is forced to combat the situation arisen due to low frequency and distress calls being received from SLDC and NRLDC to maintain grid discipline.

The curtailment would be affected in various areas of Jammu region divided in three groups including the districts of Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, part of Kathua, Chenani, Ramnagar and areas of Udhampur district (Group A), parts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts (Group B) and parts of Jammu district (Group C). These areas will be put to curtailment during any time of the day.

Jammu, June 19
The second Jump-Rope Championship concluded at Green Flower Public High School, Dhyansar.

In the boys secton, the gold medal went to Hanu Pawan Dev Singh, Sahil Chib, Aman Singh, Navjot Singh, Rohit Sharma, Shubam Charak, Shammi Thapa, Sawan Salathia, Vishal Singh and Sajan Salathia.The silver medal was bagged by Rajat Chib, Sohum Gupta, Hridyanshu, Aman Roy Salathia, Vinod Kumar, Neeraj Sharma, Amandeep and Baba Ditta The bronze medal winners included Divank Gupta, Ashish Bharti, Kavish Gupta, Arindham Khajuria, Kanav Gupta and Kamlesh Kumar.

In the girls section, the gold metal was clinched by Kushi Sudan, Mittali Mehra, Pallavi Jamwal, Isha Bamotra and Ritika. The silver medal winners included Akriti Plathia, Rekha Charak, Diksha Jaral and Monika Devi.The bronze medal winners were Shelly, Kajal Rani, Preeti Bharadwaj, Poonam Manhas and Megha Sharma.

The Championship was inaugurated by the principal of the school, Poonam Bakshi. MLA Yash Pal Kundal was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony. Seema Pawan Manhas, Pawan Singh, Shammi Thapa, Sawan Salathia, Vishal Singh and Sajan Salathia were also present.

Jammu, June 19
Shaheen Sports, Chanderhama defeated Wani Football Club by 2-0 goals in the opening match of Shaheen Football Tournament commenced at SNW Memorial Ground, Chanderhama Pattan.

The tournament is being organised by Shaheen Sports Association, Chanderhama wherein 16 teams comprising of 250 young talented players across the Baramulla district are participating in the knock-out tournament.

The tournament was inaugurated by SHO Police Station, Pattan, and Mohammad Abdullah Wani along with other dignitaries.

Jammu, June 19
Devil King and Super Challengers yesterday beat their rival teams in the ongoing Summer Premier Under-16 Cricket Tournament being played at Green Field Ground, Gandhi Nagar.

In the first match, Devil King defeated Black Hawk by one wicket. Black Hawk won the toss and chose to bat first. The team was bundled out for 90 runs in 15 overs with Abhishek being the top scorer. Vishu contributed 20 runs. From Devil Kings, Rindhom took three wickets while Vishal and Pawan shared two wickets each.

In reply, Devil King did the needful on the final delivery of 15th over for the loss of nine wickets. Aman and Rishav contributed 18 and 13 runs respectively. Vishu was the most successful bowler from Black Hawk side with three wickets while Naik took two. Abhishek, Piyush and Lohit took one wicket each.

In another match, Super Challengers got better of Red Bulls by 35 runs.

Batting first, Super Challengers set a target of 103 runs, courtesy a superb 64-run innings played by Prince.

Rajat and Raman took three and two wickets respectively from Red Bulls side.

In reply, Red Bulls lost all their wickets for 67 runs in 11 overs. Altaf and Prince bowled impressively for Super Challengers by taking three wickets each.