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Coaching centres decry police action
Kashmir receives light snowfall, night gets slightly warmer
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Commuters seek change in schedule of trains
Video of alleged police abuse goes viral on Net
Education Department distances itself from raids
Staff crunch hits Health centres
Two varsity students bag prize for video on TB
Two killed, two injured in road accidents
30 JKLF leaders court arrest in Srinagar
santosh
trophy 2013
Ceasefire violations will continue till K-issue is resolved: Geelani
KCC script win in T20 cricket
Kargil Flight
169 stranded passengers airlifted
Health camp organised
2 buildings gutted
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Coaching centres decry police action
Srinagar, January 9 The upscale Srinagar locality of Baghat Barzulla, which houses a majority of the private coaching centres, has been under the scanner of the police and the district administration for its notorious reputation of being a hub of all evil practices among youth, especially drug addiction and eve-teasing. A week ago, a stalker had thrown acid on the face of a 30-year-old playschool teacher in the Baghat area. After this incident, the Department of School Education and the police have issued separate dos and don’ts for the operation of private tuition centres. Private Coaching Centres Association president GN War said though the issuance of regulations for smooth running of these coaching centres was welcome, it should not involve harassment of the teachers and students. “Most of the times when a crime incident happens, neither the students studying at coaching centres nor the teachers employed there are involved. Usually it is the boys from other localities who come around these tuition centres. As soon as girls leave the coaching classes, incidents of eve-teasing, stalking and passing objectionable remarks happen. How is a coaching centre responsible for all this?” he asked. He said so far not a single FIR had been lodged in any police station of the Valley against a teacher or a student of a coaching centre in the criminal cases, especially those involving women. Yesterday, the police
conducted a series of raids in the Baghat Barzulla area and allegedly beat up a retired biology professor and several students who take tuition in various coaching centres of the area. The Valley’s private tutors have decried the police action and threatened to lodge protests across the Valley against the force used by the police on teachers and students. “Though a few coaching centres have definitely violated guidelines of the Department of School Education in terms of infrastructure, students’ intake capacity and teaching standards, that does not call for violent assault on senior teachers and students. If the police has failed to put brakes on the crime incidents going around in these areas, what is the fault of the coaching centres?” a renowned private tutor told The Tribune wishing anonymity. Meanwhile, Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Ashiq Bukhari today called had an interactive session with the private coaching centre heads and discussed various measures to be adopted for tackling crime incidents. During the meeting, several guidelines such as conduct separate classes for boys and girls, issuance of identity cards and installation of CCTV cameras in the areas where coaching centres are located, were advised to be adopted by the management of the coaching centres. |
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Kashmir receives light snowfall, night gets slightly warmer
Srinagar, January 9 Snowfall was received in the city and at resorts of Gulmarg in north Kashmir and Pahalgam in south Kashmir. Several other towns in north and south Kashmir also received light snowfall, an official of the state Meteorogical Department said. The official said Srinagar received 0.6 mm snowfall as the night temperature showed a considerable increase from the previous nights. The minimum temperature in the city was recorded at minus 0.3 degrees Celsius, which was five degrees warmer from the last night when the city recorded the season’s coldest night. Residents in the region's main city, Srinagar, have been witnessing severe cold in recent times as mercury has consistently fell several degrees below freezing point, including to minus 5.5 degrees Celsius on Monday night, minus 4.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday night, minus 4.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday night and to minus 5.4 degrees Celsius on Friday night. Due to the sub-zero night temperatures, the water bodies in Kashmir, including the Dal Lake, have been covered with a layer of frost continuously since the past few days and water supply to residential houses has been affected as pipes have frozen. The official said the night temperature is likely to plunge again few degrees below the freezing point on Wednesday night. The weather forecast for next two days suggests dry weather, which has brought the mercury down drastically over the last one week around the Valley, which is likely to end later this week when snow and rains are expected to fall in the higher reaches. In the remote snow-bound Ladakh region, mercury over the past four days has continuously remained below the freezing point through the night as well as days. Leh town in Ladakh region recorded a freezing night as the minimum temperature there fell to minus 12.6 degrees Celsius while the day temperature there rose to a maximum of minus 1.5 degrees Celsius. The day temperature in the adjoining Kargil district was recorded at the maximum of minus 8 degrees Celsius while the night temperature fell to minus 15.8 degrees Celsius, the official said. The minimum temperature in the sparsely populated Ladakh region usually falls many degrees below the freezing point in winter months, sometimes plunging down to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius or even further. At Pahalgam resort in south Kashmir, the mercury overnight fell to minus 3.2 degrees Celsius while the day temperature there was recorded at a maximum of 6 degrees Celsius, the official said. |
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Commuters seek change in schedule of trains
Srinagar, January 9 The authorities concerned say the requests will be taken care of once the new trains start plying on the route (expected to start by March-end). “We have received nearly 1,000 requests for change in timings of the trains,” a railway official said. “From our side, it is assured that once the new trains start plying in the Valley, all these requests will be looked into,” the official said. By the time three new trains are introduced, he said the railways will have the service up to Banihal. “There will definitely be a change in the timings of the present schedule,” he assured. The officer said a majority of the requests received pertain to having a train service between Qazigund and Baramulla in the afternoon. “We hope we will be able to accommodate most of the requests,” he added. The chief area manager of Northern Railways, Budgam, AK Sharma, said all the requests were being routed to railways divisional office in Ferozepur, Punjab. “Whenever we get any representation, we forward it to our division office and they take the final decision,” he said. The first train starts in the morning from south Kashmir’s Qazigund station to Srinagar and another leaves the central Kashmir’s Budgam station for Baramulla station in north Kashmir. The trains of Kashmir are yet to be connected with the rest of the country and they ply between Qazigund and Baramulla - a distance of 119 kilometres. Even as the trial run of the train from Qazigund to Banihal was conducted successfully recently, the trains from Kashmir would still not be able to reach other parts of the country as important railway stretch between Udhampur and Banihal is still under construction. This portion is likely to be completed by 2017. Railways say 7,000 passengers travel everyday during the autumn season and in summers 9,000 passengers travel by train. |
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Video of alleged police abuse goes viral on Net
Srinagar, January 9 A police spokesman said it has “taken note” of the video and are checking its authenticity. The spokesman said the police had filed a case under Section 66A of the IT Act at the Baramulla police station. “We are checking the veracity of the video. We have filed an FIR and started the investigations under Section 66A of the IT Act,” the spokesman said. Section 66A of the IT Act came into focus recently after a Mumbai girl was arrested in November for writing a post on Facebook, which questioned the shutdown over Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s death. The 2:15 minute video, shot with a low resolution mobile phone camera, was uploaded on YouTube on Tuesday evening and has since gone viral on social networking sites. The video shows boys being beaten up with sticks and waist belts by men in police uniforms while other uniformed men with assault rifles stand in a circle. At least two senior officers are seen in the video, sitting on chairs as the boys are being stripped. The policemen are also heard hurling abuses in Kashmiri on the boys as they make desperate pleas while their pants are being forcibly removed. Hundreds of youths have been arrested since the 2008 street agitation which was followed by another widespread agitation in 2010 when more than 120 civilians were killed in police and paramilitary firing. The video attests the allegations made by many protesters that they were “beaten up and tortured” inside police stations during detentions. Some of those arrested and booked under serious charges are minors. Details of the video on YouTube suggest it was shot inside the Baramulla police station, which was verified by at least two Baramulla residents. It is not clear when the video was shot. A resident of Baramulla district said he was “100 per cent sure” one of the boys in the video was from his
neighbourhood. |
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Solid Solar plans to light off-grid areas
Srinagar, January 9 Director of Solid
Solar Shubhra Mohanka said the company intended to provide green energy to “grid inaccessible” villages through
their products. He said the company’s battery-enabled solar home lighting system that was launched here today was capable of running two lights, a television and a mobile charger, thus providing affordable electricity to power-deprived houses of the region. “With a need to transform the off-grid landscape in the country,
we plan to provide an access to electricity to rural India through affordable lighting solutions. Contrary to large MWs, villages today require small amounts of power to run homes, shops or other small businesses. Our entire product range, including innovative solar lamps, solar home systems and solar-based streetlights, is aimed at providing affordable solution to villages lying in off-grid areas,” he added. The effort of the ‘Solid Solar’ group is supported by the J&K Bank, which is providing easy financing on solar lights, solar streetlights and solar home lighting systems. “A subsidy of Rs 108 per watt is available on home lighting solar units of 40W, 100W and 200W solar units with easy financing options from the J&K Bank,” Mohanka said. The company also intends to create awareness at a village level to educate customers on the solar product’s functionality. |
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Education Department distances itself from raids
Srinagar, January 9 “I was not aware that the police is thinking of conducting raids on the private tuition points. They did not consult us,” Rather said. He said the 15-day deadline issued by the Department of School Education to the private coaching centres to register themselves still stands. “All coaching centres, which don’t comply with
guidelines under Order No 435/Edu of 2010 will have to shut down after the deadline is over,” Rather said. President of Private Coaching Centres Association of Kashmir GN
War urged the School Education Department to extend the 15-day deadline for registration and start an online registration process for the coaching centres. “I don’t think 15 days will be enough for a coaching centre to upgrade its infrastructure, improve teaching quality and ensure other facilities. The registration process with the public department is a tedious process and I doubt the same will be completed within such time frame,” War said. |
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Staff crunch hits Health centres
Anantnag, January 9 “New doctors don’t want to serve in the rural areas and get posted in the bigger hospitals using their clout. As a result, the people of the rural areas continue to suffer,” reports said. Sources from the district hospitals in south Kashmir said many doctors were working as volunteers in these hospitals, but nobody wanted to serve in the PHCs. “The PHC at Khiram area of Anantnag remains closed for most of the time as only one doctor is posted there,” sources said. Locals of the area said a population of nearly 20,000 was dependent on the PHCs, which remained closed most of the times. “We have to ferry our patients all the way to sub-district hospital at Bijbehara, even in the dead of the night,” said Abdul Rahim, a local resident. “There are ambulances at these centres but nobody to drive them. Moreover, the centres remain short of departmental supplies at any given time,” the sources added. The authorities, however, showed helplessness saying the shortage of manpower was a reality and the issue needed to be addressed by the higher authorities. “We cannot run the PHCs throughout the week. Manpower is a real concern and we can do nothing about it. The government has to look into this matter,” said a senior official in the district health administration, requesting anonymity. |
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Employees’ stir continues for second day
Srinagar, January 9 While frequent strikes and protest programmes called by the employees are making locals suffer, the JCC defended the same while urging people to cooperate with them. “We don’t want to make people suffer but the government is forcing us to resort to the path of agitation. We appeal to the civil society and the people in general to pressurise the government so that the agreement made with us is implemented properly,” said JCC leader Farooq Trali. Following series of protests and strikes by the employees last year, the government had reached an agreement with the JCC wherein the employees were assured that a decision on their demands would be announced by September 30. After the deadline was not met, the JCC resumed the protests, saying the government had failed to fulfil the promises made to them. Besides calling for frequent protests from October last year, the JCC observed a strike on November 6 and 7. The amalgam also held rallies in December across the districts of the state to press for their demands. Even as the government had recently urged the employees to resolve the issues faced by them through talks, the JCC had rejected the same, saying that previous attempts to meet their demands through negotiations had failed. Meanwhile, work at the government offices continued to remain affected due to today’s strike. Trali said the employees also staged protests outside their respective offices throughout the course of the day. He said JCC leader Khurshid Alam was scheduled to lead a procession from Sher-e-Kashmir Park here tomorrow. Trali said another JCC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani would lead another protest in Jammu to present memorandums at the offices of Divisional Commissioner. While the three-day long strike is scheduled to end tomorrow, the JCC has already warned that it would call for an indefinite strike if the government continued to “ignore” their demands. The employees’ demands include release of arrears recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission, enhancement 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. The 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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Two varsity students bag prize for video on TB
The prize contains a trophy, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 25,000. In the competition, 175 submissions were judged by the panelists. “The competition was open to all producers, private and government, individuals, production agencies, organisations, media centres, television channels and media schools across India”, said coordinator of the Department of Convergent Journalism, CUK. The competition was organised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD), in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, he added. The prize was given to the winners by Amol Palekar, noted parallel cinema actor and Oscar nominated director of ‘Paheli’ movie and the Chief Guest of the occasion, on Monday. The award function was held at Nation Council of Science Museums, Kolkata.
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Two killed, two injured in road accidents
Srinagar, January 9 The spokesman said a 38-year-old man, who was being treated at a Srinagar hospital after getting injured in a road accident on Monday, succumbed to injuries. Abdul Jabbar Bhat (38), a resident of Delina, was injured near Sangrama in Baramulla district. He said in South Kashmir’s Qazigund town, a truck collided with another truck, which in turn collided with a parked truck on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, resulting in damage to two vehicles. There were no injuries in the accident. A load carrier hit and injured a pedestrian, Sheikh Aabid, in Ganderbal district. The injured had been shifted to hospital for treatment, the spokesman said. Two passenger cabs collided in the city here near Cheshma Shahi garden resulting in injuries to one person. The injured had been shifted to hospital for treatment. The spokesman said cases has been registered in all the incidents. |
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30 JKLF leaders court arrest in Srinagar
Srinagar, January 9 He said the mother and three sisters of JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat were also among those who courted arrest. The JKLF has launched jail bharo tehreek to highlight the atrocities committed against Kashmiri prisoners lodged in various jails of the country and also against the verdicts of life imprisonments and other sentences. The fourth phase of the tehreek is scheduled to be held on January 11. It had been kick started by JKLF chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik on January 4. Malik urged all the separatist parties to unite and make more efforts towards seeking justice for the prisoners. |
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santosh
trophy 2013
Srinagar, January 9 “Most of the probables have been selected from four goodwill exhibition football matches that were played last year between State XI, Mohamadan Sports and Mohan Bagan Club, Kolkata. The probables have been considered on the performance during these four matches. Many young players have also been selected,” said an official of the J&KFA. The state has to play three matches on February 2, 4 and 6 against Assam, Rajasthan & Andaman Nicobar respectively. The players shortlisted for the tournament for the state are Vikram Jeet Singh, Riyaz Ahmad, Wasim Feroz, Yasin Ahmad, Aman Thapa, Gautam, Ajay Kumar, Nazir Ahmad, Shahnawaz, Mukesh, Rohit Kumar, Khalid Qayoom, Jamsheed, Rizwan Sheikh, Urfan, Shahnaz, Sandeep, Gulzar Ahmad, Asif Majeed, Amir, Umar, Zubair, Aiman and Altaf. “Out of these probables, 20 players and three state officials will proceed for Varanasi on January 28,” the official said. |
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Ceasefire violations will continue till K-issue is resolved: Geelani
Srinagar, January 9 “Countries all over the world are striving for peace and over all progress in every walk of life but India and Pakistan are in a constant state of war because of the Kashmir issue,” he added. He said a major part of India and Pakistan’s budget is specified for their defence, while on the other hand, the common people were deprived of the basic amenities, he said.
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KCC script win in T20 cricket
Jammu, January 9 Skipper Naresh fiery knock of 65 runs off 35 balls contained as many as seven delectable hits to the fence. For the RCC, Dheeraj was the wrecker-in-chief with a five-wicket haul. Chasing 157 runs to win, the RCC batsmen had difficulties in negotiating with disciplined line and length of the
KCC bowlers. The RCC eventually was skittled out for 151 runs in 19.2 overs. For the KCC, Raghav, Sumit, Pankaj and Vicky shared two wickets apiece. Naresh was adjudged man of the match.
— TNS |
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Kargil Flight
Srinagar, January 9 Soz said, “I requested her to make a strong plea with the Prime Minister for grant of subsidy in airfare as is done for the people of North East. I explained that
the subsidy would be required for winter months when Kargil region gets totally cut off with the rest of the world”. Air Mantra Service, to and fro
Kargil-Jammu, was started on January 7. Soz also said the launching of the air service was a moment of celebration for the people of Kargil but the people there could not afford the fare of Rs 10,000 (one-way). |
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169 stranded passengers airlifted
Srinagar, January 9 “Among these, 21 passengers were airlifted from Jammu to Kargil, 38 from Kargil to Srinagar, 33 from Srinagar to Kargil and 39 from Kargil to Jammu”, he said. Earlier, on Tuesday, 38 passengers were airlifted from Kargil to Jammu in the Kargil Courier Service, a special service being run by the Air Force for the region. The spokesman added that the passengers of Kargil, at Srinagar and Jammu, had been asked to contact the Liaison Officer at Kargil House for issuance of tickets. |
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Health camp organised
Srinagar, January 9 Specialist doctors, a general physician, gynecologist and psychiatrist examined over twenty families. Free medicines were also provided to them. On January 3, a similar camp was organisaed by APDP and VHAI, for such families from Srinagar and Baramulla districts at its office at Hyderpora, Srinagar. |
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2 buildings gutted
Srinagar, January 9 He added that both
the buildings were completely damaged and the cause of the fire was being ascertained. |
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Srinagar, January
9