Jammu, February 6
Lack of funds may hamper the ambitious Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) formulated by the M/S Rites Company aimed to end the urban transport woes of Jammu and Srinagar and the provision of modern transport system to the people. The project requires Rs 20,000 crore for development of each city, which is beyond the scope of any budget plan, sources said.

The company was engaged by the state government to study ways to improve the public transport system in the state, which is on the verge of collapse, as there has been unplanned expansion over past three decades, due to the shortsightedness of successive governments.

Both cities face chaotic traffic situation in the absence of any plan to deal with the increase in the number of vehicles on city roads.

A committee headed by Chief Secretary Madhav Lal had submitted a final draft to the government laying stress on building metro and mono rail services in Srinagar and Jammu, introducing Bus Rapid Transport System, Inland Waterways Transport System, development of parking spaces and widening of roads in Srinagar and Jammu in view of the growing pressure of traffic.

“It is difficult to get the Centre to release Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore for each city even in a phased manner. The Planning Commission of India is unhappy over the fund utilisation and poor target performance of the state," said an official of the Finance Department. He said the government has been claiming that the private sector would be involved in the projects for urban development, but past experience shows that they were also not keen to invest in critical areas.

“We have poor planning at all levels and our other projects are running behind schedule leaving our cities chocked," official claimed.

In the draft city mobility plan, RITES has identified areas requiring focused attention to improve and upgrade traffic management in Srinagar and Jammu.

The official said the company had suggested short and long-term measures for improvement of the transport scenario and stressed on the need to upgrade mobility within the cities keeping in view the growth of traffic and consequent challenges up to 2030.

While the crumbling traffic infrastructure due to increasing number of vehicles on roads is leading to daily chaos, the government has been able to make only small efforts to deal with the crisis, due to lack of road infrastructure and unplanned expansion of the cities and towns.

Jammu has 4,07,400 vehicles-the highest in any district-registered with the Department of Transport, the number of vehicles is 1,67,963 in Srinagar.

In J&K the total number of registered vehicles has grown up to more than 7,37,577.

Jammu, February 6
It was a sunny day here today bringing respite from three days of rain and chill. With rise in the minimum and maximum temperature today, the Met department has forecast the weather will remain pleasant now.

There has been slight increase in the minimum and maximum temperatures across the state. “Sunshine has broken the three-day spell of chill to a great extent and we hope that the cold weather will recede fast,” said Rohit Sharma, a college student.

An officer at the Meteorological Department forecast improvement in weather conditions over the next 24 hours. “The sunshine today broke the long spell of chill much to the relief of the residents. We expect slight improvement in temperatures over the next 24 hours,” Director Indian Meteorological Department Sonam Lotus said.

He said, “The weather will remain mainly dry for few weeks as strong Western disturbance is receding.”

Skies in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh today remained clear for the entire day, leading to increase in the maximum temperature.

The cold wave conditions had gripped the state as there was a strong weather pattern over the northern region, bringing in heavy snowfall and rainfall.

Traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway was restored for one-way traffic on Wednesday following improvement in the weather after two days of heavy snowfall.

Light vehicles have also started moving on the highway from Jammu to Srinagar.

To avoid roadblocks on the highway, no vehicle will be allowed to move from Srinagar to Jammu.

Jammu, February 6
The Health department today sealed a nursing home for not conforming to the laid down norms. A team of the Directorate of Health Services comprising Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Basant Kumar and District Health Officer, Danish Ayub Khan, assisted by the officials of the district administration and the police raided Life Scan nursing home at Last Morh in Gandhi Nagar area.

The officials said, the nursing home was being allegedly run in violation of the laid down norms and it didn’t have a valid registration certificate. “Earlier, a notice was also served on the management of the nursing home giving them the opportunity to complete the documents and comply with the norms,” they said.

Jammu, February 6
District Development Commissioner, Poonch, Ajeet Kumar Sahu, today dismissed Gulam Hussain, a Junior Assistant working in the relief section of his office for alleged misappropriation and embezzlement of funds, criminal misconduct and misuse of official position.

The matter has been referred to the Vigilance Organisation for action under the Prevention of Corruption Act. —TNS

Jammu, February 6
Work on the prestigious Tawi Barrage (lake) project is in full swing and 95 per cent of civil and mechanical works have been completed. This information was given to Minister for PHE, Irrigation, Sham Lal Sharma, during his visit to the project site, here today. Expressing satisfaction over the pace of progress on the project, the Minister directed the officers to speed up the work to ensure completion before the onset of the rainy season. He also directed that quality standards be maintained strictly as per the specifications of the project.

The first deadline for the completion of the artificial lake project expired on October 2012. The deadline was extended till March 30, 2013, and has now been extended till July 2013 as the department had failed to complete the remaining work on time.

The design of the artificial lake project over the Tawi was approved by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. A team of experts from Pakistan had also inspected the project. The project aims to make Jammu city more attractive by making use of the barrage water to augment the irrigation facilities in areas where paddy is grown in the district. The reservoir Tawi Barrage project nears completion would enable lifting of 700 cusecs of water from Tawi to recharge the Ranbir Canal to irrigate 8,000 kanals of agriculture land in the villages dependent on rainfall.

The construction of the lake project, which was approved by the then Governor Jagmohan in 1986, was strated three years. The approval of the design also took months before it was approved by the Central Water Commission.

the project
The Rs 69.70-crore Tawi Barrage project, which would create an artificial lake downstream the Tawi, was launched in July 2010 and is likely to be completed within two years by July. Of the total project cost, Rs 37.32-crore has been spent so far

Jammu, February 6
The Police Headquarters today issued the transfer and adjustment orders of 196 Inspectors of the Armed and Executive Police with immediate effect.

A spokesperson said 145 Inspectors were transferred while 51 others were adjusted in the department. —TNS

Jammu, February 6
Minister for Youth Services and Sports Taj Mohi-ud-Din said strengthening of sports infrastructure would be his top priority and would take up all the important issues with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

While interacting with the office bearers of recognised sports associations of the Jammu Province today, Taj informed that two sports colleagues would soon be set up at Jammu and Srinagar, respectively.

Sources said during the two hour and 15-minute long meeting, the office bearers had expressed strong resentment over the alleged releasing of grants by the J&K State Sports Council to the organisers of the recently concluded Kashmir Premier League and Jammu Premier League from its own funds, and the sports council had claimed that the functioning of the sports bodies had adversely affected due to paucity of funds.

“We have made our points very clear to the sports minister that how Sports Council can afford to release amount to the tune of Rs 20 lakh from its limited budget of Rs 60 lakh in favour of cricket tournaments like the Jammu Premier League, Kashmir Premier League etc.

“The sports council is already struggling to disburse grants to the associations and by providing this financial support, it has made things even worse,” one of the office bearers of a sports body told The Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

“All the principal office bearers of sports associations have informed Taj Mohi-ud-Din that there is no encouragement for the sportspersons as well as their coaches, who are toiling hard to bring laurels for the state. We have also apprised the minister that the state government has yet to announce the date for holding a function to confer Sher-e-Kashmir sports awards to the outstanding sportspersons,” he added.

The coaches, who are instrumental in exploring the potential of players are also ignored by the authorities. The state lacks infrastructural facilities to groom its budding players. We have also raised the demand to confer Parshuram award to the coaches in recogniti on of their invaluable services rendered to the players of the state,” the office bearer maintained.

However, the meeting was told that this year, the J&K football team had reached the quarter finals of prestigious Santosh Trophy. The J&K teams had bagged 11 gold medals in judo, 19 gold medals in gymnastics and a silver medal in korfball. The state has fetched 70 medals in team events in handball so far. Secretary, J&K Sports Council, Dileep Thusoo and president, J&K Olympic Association and former Minister, Rangil Singh also attended the meeting. 

Jammu, February 6
Trade Unions in the state are gearing up for the two-day nationwide strike from February 20. The strike call has been given by labour unions against the economic policies of the UPA government.

Representatives of the unions today held a day-long meeting to discuss the fallout of the decisions of the successive governments at the Centre which is against the interests of the working class. They alleged that over past three decades, the wages earned by the working class have declined despite claims of growth of the government.

They alleged that only industrialists and bankers have benefited from the pro-market forces in the country.

Federation of Union of Industrial Workers (FUIW) president Nirdosh Uppal alleged that predatory capital on the neo-liberal prowl has intensified its multi-prolonged offensive in the name of overcoming global economic crisis. “In our country it has assumed various cuts in old and new jobs, retrenchment, forced retirement and increased workload,” Uppal said.

The Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) has appealed to the state government employees to gear up for the fifth phase of the agitation in support of their demands, including enhancement in the retirement age by 2 years and regularization of daily wagers.

The EJAC also held a meeting to chalk out strategy for five-day strike call given by the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) from February 19 to 23.

President of EJAC Abdul Qyoom Wani has criticised the state government to deflect from its commitment and agreement reached between senior leaders of JCC and the state government.

Jammu, February 6
A state-level meeting of the Bharat Scoutes and Guides was held under the chairmanship of RS Chib, president, Bharat Scouts And Guides here today.

The meeting was held to consider the work programme proposed for expansion of the bhawan and the establishment of the training centre in Bhalwal. Chib stressed for additional facilities for the children, who were volunteers to take non-formal education under the J&K State Bharat and Scouts Guides programme.

Commissioner Secretary, Revenue, BA Runyal had assured the transfer of the identified land in Bhalwal for which the infrastructure would be provided by the Governor NN Vohra, who is the patron of Bharat Scouts and Guides, J&K.

Daleep Thusso, secretary, J&K Sports Council had informed the president about the logistics and also obtained approval for the respective works. Other issues raised during the meeting included fund raising for the activities of the Scouts and Guides and the programme of the current month.

Bharat Scouts and Guides vice-president Roma Wani stressed that new methods of imparting non-formal education must be introduced to draw the interest of the young scouts and guides. — TNS

Rajouri, February 6
State youth secretary, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) advocate Ahsan Mirza slammed the coalition government-led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for delaying power restoration work in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and has demanded immediate relief to the snow-affected people.

Mirza said when life in the border districts of Rajouri was gradually returning to normal after heavy rainfall and snowfall on January 18th, once again the heavy snowfall threw life out of gear with many roads closed and power supply being snapped in past two days.

Taking coalition government with strong hands, Ahsan Mirza said still no relief had been given to the victims and power lines was yet to been restored in many parts of these districts.

“Over two dozen mud houses were damaged in last nights rainfall leaving a number of people homeless in such an extreme cold and chilly condition, which is unfortunate” Mirza said.

Mirza said the state government should send their relief teams to snow-bound areas like Budhal, Kotranka, Thanamandi, Nowshera and Dharal to access ground reality and provide on-the-spot compensation without delaying. He lambasted government, who had failed to tackle the situation.

He said the population of the city had increased many folds and government needed to improve infrastructure according to the needs and demands of the people.”

He said the Rajouri district had remained without electricity and essential services since yesterday, owing to snag in the 132 KV line.

Sources said number of electricity poles and transformers were damaged in Chingues, BG, Budhal, Kotranka, Kalakote and Thanamandi.

He demanded for allotment of additional funds to the district so that damages caused to the essential services were restored urgently. 

Jammu, February 6
The boys of Haryana got the better of their counterparts from Delhi by 2-0 in the summit showdown to clinch the 1st National Ice Hockey U-18 Championship at Karzoo Ice Hockey Rink, Leh.

In the girls’ section, J&K Blue team had the last laugh against J&K Red by 3-0 in the finals to emerge victorious. The closing ceremony was presided over by the District Development Commissioner, Leh, Tsering Angchuk.

While appreciating the initiative of the Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI), DDC, Leh, said the tournament had provided good opportunity to young players of the region to exhibit their skills and potential. He asserted that the IHAI must focus on Ladakh district in their future winter sports activities considering the potential of the sport supported by the geographical condition of the region.

The DC also informed that an ice hockey rink of the international repute would come soon in Leh. He said the council and administration were leaving no stone unturned to complete it as early as possible with the vision to promote ice hockey to the standard of national and international levels.

Akshay Kumar, general secretary, IHAI highlighted the recent activities carried out by the IHAI during the year. The national ice hockey championship was organised for the first time in Leh district by the IHAI. 

Jammu, February 6
The J&K Fencing Assoication has selected the state team for the forthcoming 23rd Senior National Fencing Championship slated to be held at Rohtak (Haryana).

Chief sports officer MS Baba and secretary, J&K Fencing Association, Vijay Sharma, besides coach, Shottu Lal were present during the screening of the team.

The team comprised Rashid Ahmed, Sanjeev Suri, Dimple Thappa, Vishal Thapar, Shivani Hans, Ranchan Sabarwal, Mohammad Tariq, Mirza Amir Beig, Ishu Bharti, Priya Khajuria, Ajay Khartol, Rohit Salgotra, Ankush Gupta, Sahil Sharma, Simran Arya, Sahib Gupta and Mokshi Sharma.