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Rape accused won’t get legal aid: Shopian Bar association
6 coaching centres sealed in Anantnag
CCTVs near coaching centres soon
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Fear of wild animals grips Kupwara villages
Baramulla residents protest against power, water woes
KU bags best research award
Rally at Kashmir University against atrocities on women
Payment of claims to contractors sought
7 held for gambling in Srinagar
R-Day arrangements reviewed
Minister reviews arrangements for Eid-i-Milad-un-Nabi
NYKS training programme organised
BJP membership drive in Srinagar
Training programme begins
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Rape accused won’t get legal aid: Shopian Bar association
Anantnag, January 8 Terming the act as barbaric, the Bar association has not only condemned it in the strongest words but also it has been decided that no member of the association will appear in the court on behalf of the rape accused. “We condemn this barbaric act in the strongest of words and we have decided not to provide the accused any legal aid,” said president of the Shopian Bar Association, MY Bhat. He said the decision will be followed in letter and spirit after the winter vacations of the courts are over. The accused, 32-year-old Shahid Ahmad Wani, son of Manzoor Ahmad Wani of Aliyar Pora Shopian, is alleged to have raped a 13-year-old girl after he abducted her on November 25, 2012. The accused has been arrested and an FIR has been registered under sections 342 (restricting somebody’s movement) and 376 (rape) of the RPC. The decision of not providing any legal aid to the accused comes days after the High Court Bar Association, in a press statement conveyed that no legal aid will be provided to the man accused of attacking a school teacher in Srinagar. The High Court Bar Association has decided it will provide legal aid to the victim of the acid attack so that the culprit gets due punishment for this inhuman act.
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6 coaching centres sealed in Anantnag
Anantnag, January 8 The district administration maintains that not only are the coaching centres shabby and without the very basic infrastructure but also they are unregistered and are operating illegally. Moreover, the teachers working at these centres are all government employees. “I have sent police to seal these centres and they are already done with the process. Strict action will be taken against the government employees working at these
centres,” said Assistant Development Commissioner (ADC), Anantnag, Ghulam Ahmad Dar. He said the coaching
centres, despite charging the students hefty amounts, have failed to provide them proper infrastructure. “The students are stuffed in small rooms. At one coaching centre, I found around 250 girls and boys stuffed in a small room with no chairs,” said the ADC. He said the parents of these children should come forward and work in tandem with the administration to make the education sector better. “The responsibility of the parents does not end after giving their ward money for coaching classes. They should make it a point to enquire about the conditions their wards are made to sit in,” said the
ADC. Osmania Coaching Centre, New Osmania Coaching Centre, Eternal Coaching Centre, Classic Institute of Education, Bright Career institute and Bright Future Coaching Centre are the centres that have been sealed. |
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CCTVs near coaching centres soon
Srinagar, January 8 The Jammu and Kashmir police has also advised administrators of coaching centres to issue ID cards
to their students at the earliest so that mischievous elements could be identified. “Closed-circuit television cameras will be installed in the vicinity where a large number of coaching centres are operating so as to keep a close vigil around the vulnerable areas,” Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Ashiq Bukhari said during a meeting with administrators of coaching centres in Srinagar. The Senior Superintendent of Police also asked the administrators of coaching centres to formulate a shift system with significant intervals. “We assure all possible help to administrators of tuition centres,” he said. A police spokesman in Srinagar said while interacting with administrators of coaching centres, numerous measures were agreed upon for implementation so that mischievous elements that vitiate the environment in and around the coaching centres could be dealt with. “The Senior Superintendent of Police assured the administrators of coaching centres of all possible help from the police. Besides, he urged them to cooperate with the police,” the spokesman said. The Senior Superintendent of Police also
provided designated helpline numbers to administrators of coaching centres for seeking police help at any time. A woman was attacked with acid in Parraypora locality of Hyderpora on January 2. She was flown to the capital where she is now being treated. The attack had sparked a wave of anger across the Valley. |
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Govt staff strike hits work at offices across Valley
Srinagar, January 8 While sources said attendance at the offices in the Valley remained thin, JCC leader Farooq Trali claimed the strike call was a “complete success”. He said the employees also took out processions at district level across the state and memorandums were presented to the respective deputy commissioners at several places. The JCC had called for a three-day-long pen-down strike beginning today to protest against the government’s failure to meet its long-pending demands. While the strike would continue tomorrow, Trali said JCC leader Khurshid Alam is scheduled to lead a procession from Sher-e-Kashmir Park here on January 10. He said another JCC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani would lead a protest in Jammu on the same day to present memorandums. Wani has already warned that the next round of agitation would be “decisive” and that the JCC was mulling an indefinite strike if the government failed to act on their demands by January 10. The employees’ demands include release of arrears recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission, raising of retirement age from 58 to 60 years, removal of pay anomalies and regularisation of daily wagers and casual workers working in various government departments. Other JCC demands are inclusion of five years of contractual service of Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers in the service book and regularisation of education volunteers after seven years of service.
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Fear of wild animals grips Kupwara villages
Kupwara, January 8 Bear attacked and killed two sheep of Mohd Khazir Hajam in Karihama village, 7 km from Kupwara, last night. “A bear broke into the animal shed last night and killed the sheep. During the past few days, the animal has devoured many sheep and poultry birds during night hours. The wildlife department is a mute spectator,” said Habibullah Pir of Karihama. Locals of Karihama, Gushi and Pazipora villages said a bear had killed around 55 poultry birds during the past two days. Following hue and cry against the wildlife department, officials of the department set up a cage in the village to trap the bear. “We have set up a cage in the village and the bear will hopefully be trapped. The animals have intensified movement due to intense cold conditions in upper reaches following snowfall a few days back,” said a wildlife official. He asked residents to restrict their own movement, especially in the evening hours. The scare of wild animals continues to haunt the locals of Lolab as well. Residents of Charkote, Dardpora, Maidanpora, Charkote and Warnow in Lolab said they are scared to venture out of their houses due to increasing movement of wild animals. They said bear and leopards were on the prowl in villages and the department was doing nothing to curb movement of animals. “The wild animals are on the prowl in villages even during the day,” said Hamidullah Khan of Charkote, Lolab. Residents of some hamlets near forests, including Haphrada, Ophan,
Kalaroose and Doolipora said they were reeling under intense scare of wild animals. “Movement in the evening has become difficult. Children are more prone to attacks by wild animals. We spotted a leopard this morning too, but wildlife officials have never bothered to visit our villages,” said Ghulam Nabi Gojri of Doolipora. In Handwara villages too, wild scare continues to grip people, especially those living in upper reaches. At a few places, the villagers said they arranged evening fires to scare away the animals. Wildlife warden of north Kashmir Mohd Maqbool Baba said despite dearth of staff, the department is doing everything within its means to deal with increasing scare of wild animals. “Despite staff shortage, we are trying to reach out to every village in the grip of wild scare,” said the official. |
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Protest over power cuts
Srinagar, January 8 The demonstrators at
Bemina, on western outskirts of the city located less than five kilometres from the commercial nerve centre of
Srinagar, placed multiple barricades to shut traffic movement as many shops in the area also downed the shutters to join the agitation. The protest, which began early morning, severely affected the transport services on a major highway which connects three districts of north Kashmir with the city as there was a queue of passenger buses and other vehicles brought to a halt. This winter, erratic power supply has become a norm across the region which has abundant hydro-electricity generation
capacity. Bemina, which houses one of the largest neighbourhoods of the valley, has been facing erratic and frequent power cuts since last month, which has so far led to at least three other minor protests by residents in the last few days. Most of the houses in the area have a metered electricity connection, installed more than four years ago with a government assurance that the measure will be complimented with uninterrupted power supply. However, this winter, as the night temperature plummets to extreme freezing conditions, the power supply to the locality has been severely dysfunctional, with outages sometimes lasting entire evenings. Thousands of residents in Bemina spent the last two nights in darkness and dined by candle-light as a major outage lasted more than 48 hours, with electricity supply being restored only briefly for a few hours. The Tuesday protest, which was the biggest in recent days over the scarce supply of electricity, lasted up to six hours and ended in the afternoon when a senior Power Development Department official assured the agitated residents that the supply will be restored within three days, a protester mediating on behalf of the residents with the official said. The Bemina receiving station, which caters to around 8,000 houses, has an installed capacity to supply 1,150 Ampere current. During the winter months, when the electricity consumption increases drastically as residents use multiple heating points to escape the extreme cold, the supply demand at peak hours rises to 2,100 Ampere, according to a Power Development Department official. The figure, it is stated, is double the amount the department can afford. Power Development Department tried to apportion the burden of demand it faces at Bemina receiving station to an adjoining receiving station at LAWDA colony. The move failed as the locals there said it would hamper supply service to
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Baramulla residents protest against power, water woes
Kupwara, January 8 The protesters including children and women raised slogans against Power Development Department (PDD) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) in view of their failure to restore basic facilities to the villages. Shopkeepers also joined the protesters and the local Watergam market remained closed till 3 pm. The protesters blocked the Handwara-Baramulla road for hours. They complained the villages had been reeling under darkness for the past four days and power had been playing hide-and-seek. “Electricity has been missing for the past three days. We are also subjected to unprecedented water woes. In absence of water supply since Saturday, women have been forced to walk miles to fetch drinking water from a nullah,” said a protester. Locals said officials of none of the departments visited the affected villages despite repeated representations. Some of them said the water supply to the villages had remained affected partly due to the prevailing frosty conditions. “If power supply is not restored by evening, we will not pay the tariff for the month of January,” said Imtiyaz Ahmad, a protester. They were later pacified following assurances from senior officials of the departments that power and water supply facilities would be restored soon. A senior official of the electrical division Watergam said the power supply to the villages remained affected for the past few days due to upgradation of the system in the division. “By midnight, the supply to the villages would be restored as upgradation is likely to get completed,” he said.
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KU bags best research award
Srinagar, January 8
He said the award was granted for their excellent research work on simulating the futuristic scenario of hydrology and land cover in Kashmir valley under the changing climate till 2100. “Pertinently, more than 3,000 research papers were presented during the five-day centenary celebrations of Indian Science Congress, attended by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, President of India Pranab Mukherjee and a galaxy of scientists and science policy-makers from national and international organisations,” the spokesman added. He said Kashmir University’s Department of Earth Sciences had, till date, won more than a dozen research awards from national and international organisations for its “cutting edge research” in Earth Sciences and had emerged as one of the leading departments in the field at the national level.
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Rally at Kashmir University against atrocities on women
Srinagar, January 8 The rally was organised by the National Service Scheme (NSS), University of Kashmir, in collaboration with the NSS units of various degree colleges and other higher secondary institutes of the Valley, a university spokesman said in a statement. He said hundreds of students took part in the rally to highlight atrocities against the women. The rally, he said, was flagged off by acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kashmir University Prof S Fayaz Ahmad. “During the rally, the acting VC condemned the barbaric acts against women and asked the students to adhere to moral values. He also appealed the parents and teachers to give moral educations to their wards,” the spokesman said. He said the acting VC lauded the participating students, the NSS programme officers for organising the rally. “The students while displaying placards highlighted the atrocities against the women and impressed upon the authorities to give severe punishment to the perpetrators of such crimes. They also demanded fast-track courts to deal with such matters,” the spokesman added.
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Payment of claims to contractors sought
Srinagar, January 8 Referring to the media reports that contractors, self-help groups and suppliers were not paid in time, chief spokesperson of the party Naeem Akhtar today said it was a matter of grave concern that the government withheld genuine payments even as it receives funds for every work that was taken up. “A representative body of government contractors had claimed that the government owed them at least Rs 1,000 crore in Kashmir valley alone which gave one an idea about the gravity of problem. Though it was a common knowledge that payments were generally withheld for extorting money from the executors of any government work the fact that there was no response from the government to complaints of the contractors made it clear that the top leadership too was a beneficiary of the brazen loot,” Akther said in a statement. The chief spokesman said on the one hand government has huge resources for the luxuries of its leaders but when it comes to making genuine expenditure it cites lack of resources as a reason. He said thousands of people engaged in various departments as casual, daily wagers or seasonal employees do not receive remuneration for months together. In some cases, the payment to these highly exploited persons is made once or twice in a year but only equal to one or two months wages. "These unfortunate people are hoodwinked and occasionally paid in the nature of charity rather than well-earned wages," Akhtar said.
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7 held for gambling in Srinagar
Srinagar, January 8 A police party from Soura police station raided a place being used as a gambling spot and arrested seven persons near Ali Jan Road, a police spokesman said. The spokesman said police seized stake money of Rs 95,230 and a few packs of playing cards. A case under Section 13 of Gambling Act was registered against the accused, the spokesman said. |
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R-Day arrangements reviewed
Srinagar, January 8 Among the others, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Srinagar Municipal Corporation Commissioner GN Qasba, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Srinagar and other senior functionaries of various departments attended the meeting. An official spokesman said discussions were held threadbare for ensuring all types of arrangements to celebrate the Republic Day-2013 with gaiety and fervour. — TNS |
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Minister reviews arrangements for Eid-i-Milad-un-Nabi
Srinagar, January 8 The minister urged all the departments concerned to work in close coordination to ensure foolproof arrangements for Eid-i-Milad-u-Nabi, an official said. Waqf Board vice-chairman MY Qadri, District Development Commissioner, Srinagar, Baseer Ahmed Khan and other senior officers of various departments, including the Public Health Engineering (PHE), Power Development Department (PDD), Roads and Building (R&B), Health and Transport attended the meeting. Sagar urged the PDD authorities to ensure uninterrupted supply of power to the shrines across the Valley so that the devotees coming to pay their obeisance do not face any inconvenience. The minister also directed the Health Department to ensure round the clock medical facilities available at the Hazratbal shrine during the Urs days. Eid-i-Milad-un-Nabi marks the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad and the Hazratbal shrine on the banks of the picturesque Dal Lake continues to remain the centre for Milad celebrations in the Valley.
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NYKS training programme organised
Srinagar, January 8 The programme aimed to motivate the unemployed youth towards self
employment schemes so that the youth would be able to set up their own income generating units for earning their livelihood with dignity and
honour. |
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Kashmir-made bread gets dearer
Srinagar, January 8 The burden is being felt by consumers as Kashmiri bread makers have unilaterally raised the rates of bread and other bakery products. “The nanwais (local bread makers) used to sell lawasa, telvur, girda and other bakery products at Rs 2.50 per piece. They are selling the same products for Rs 5 per piece now,” said Mohammad Amin, a consumer from uptown Srinagar. Amin added that the ‘nanwais’ (local bread makers) are selling the bread and other bakery products at arbitrary rates as no fresh rate list has been approved by the authorities as yet. Justifying the increase, the bread makers cite the escalating prices of flour (maida/atta) and firewood. They say the bread makers have been demanding revision of the rate list for a long time. “Earlier, I used to get 50 kg bag of ‘atta’ for Rs 700, which has now increased to Rs 1,100. Besides, the cost of firewood has also gone up manifold,” said Mohammad Akram, a bread maker from Chanpora locality of Srinagar. He added that these factors have forced many bread makers to either increase the prices of the local bread or close their shops as the business is becoming less profitable. “As per the rate list approved earlier, we used to sell 58 grams of bread for Rs 2.50. However, taking into account the escalating prices of flour and firewood, we had proposed that the authorities concerned allow us to sell 48 grams of bread for Rs 3,” said Bilal Nowgami, vice-president of the Kashmir Local Bread Makers Association. “During our negotiations with the Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) authorities, this proposal was not accepted. But later, the authorities had agreed to fix the price of 52 grams of bread as Rs 3,” he said. So far, he said, the CA&PD authorities have not approved or publicised the new rate list, which is causing confusion among the consumers. “If the authorities don’t agree to our new rate list, the bread makers in Kashmir would be forced to down their shutters and go for strike,” Nowgami threatened. Up, up and away?
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BJP membership drive in Srinagar
Srinagar, January 8 Generally secretary of BJP’s Kashmir unit Mohammad Altaf Thakur said the convention was chaired by Deputy Incharge Kashmir Affairs Dr Ali Mohammad Mir while state vice-president Sofi Yusuf was also present on the occasion. He said the members discussed measures that the party intends to take consolidate BJP’s presence in the Valley as it has so far failed to win a single Assembly seat. Thakur said the BJP had started a month-long membership drive from January 1 across the Valley to strengthen the party base and to prepare ground for the Assembly elections 2014. “Today 15 fresh members joined the party-fold. The first phase of the drive was held in south Kashmir last week. As many as 73 new members had joined BJP in Shopian while 23 joined the party in Pulwama. It was also decided that the special drive to meet the people will be spread wide at not only the district level but also at block levels to strength the party in Kashmir,” he said. Thakur said the party members also discussed in detail the manner in which the BJP intended to celebrate the Republic Day later this month. He said the party intended to celebrate the Republic Day on a grand scale as the shutdown call of the separatists usually marks January 26 while official functions are held amid tight security. The next BJP drive is scheduled at Baramulla in north Kashmir on January 10 later this month.
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Training programme begins
Srinagar, January 8 Advisor to the SSA Mohammad Rafi inaugurated the programme here today. Rafi said the aim of the SSA was to provide elementary education to the children, besides improving quality of education through decentralised and context-specific planning in a time-bound manner.
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Six coaching centres were sealed here in Anantnag district after the district administration found them devoid of basic infrastructure.
A rally was organised today against the atrocities on women at the University of Kashmir. While condemning the attacks on women, particularly the recent acid attack on a woman, the participants demanded fast track courts and severe punishments for the perpetrators of such crimes.
“Prof Shakil A Romshoo and his team of researchers at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir, were awarded the prestigious Best Research award in Earth Sciences in the centenary year of Indian Science Congress held this time at Calcutta University from January 3 to 7,” a KU spokesman said in a statement issued here today.