Jammu, February 8
Negligence of school authorities and laxity on part of the administration has once again resulted in loss of life. A Class VII student of Delhi Public School was crushed under the tyres of a bus belonging to the school in the school premises yesterday.

The managements of most educational institutions have been ignoring safety norms set by the Supreme Court (SC) and the demand for safety of their wards raised by parents from time to time. The traffic police has also failed to rein in school vehicles violating road safety norms.

Surprisingly, even after yesterday’s tragic incident, the administration is adopting the same old tactic of ‘action after inquiry report’ to hide its failure in making educational institutions follow road safety norms to ensure safety of schoolchildren.

As many as 850 private buses, cabs and autorickshaws ferry 40,000 students to their schools. It is a matter of great concern that they do not follow road safety norms. Those responsible for the safety of the children are the school managements, the Director School Education (DSE) and the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).

Few months back, the Traffic Police had issued directions to private cabs ferrying schoolchildren to limit the number of students being ferried per vehicle. Instead the cabs increased their monthly fare without the consent of parents, which surprised all.

I have directed my staff to give details of the road safety norms and prepare a list of the schools violating them. Though DPS is under the CBSE, but we will review the way all educational institutions are ferrying children. Action will be taken as per the rules

— Dev Lata , Director School Education

After the inquiry by the administration is complete we would take action under the relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act

— Arvind Kotwal , rto

Jammu, February 8
The Parents Association of the Delhi Public School today alleged that the school management was plying old buses to transport students. They have alleged a nexus between the administration and the school management.

The parents have also alleged that the school management was playing with the lives of the students yet the administration had maintained a criminal silence on the negligence of the school.

A delegation of the Parents Association which met Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pardeep Gupta, said the response of the school authorities was not satisfying. “We want that FIR should be registered against the school management as precious life of a teenaged student of the school was lost due to the mismanagement on part of the school,” said Satish Varmani, a parent who was a part of the delegation. He, however, regretted that instead of taking action the school management and the administration were shirking responsibility. “As the school is run by influential persons, the administration is hesitant to take prompt action,” he said. The school management did not withdraw old school buses despite the demand of parents.

A parents said they had already given a written complain against the school management before the Education Department. “The school management is plying condemned buses,” he said. The association had also pointed out that the school management was charging huge amount as charges from parents, he said. Parents want that the district administration must act tough against those violating safety norms.

Schools must ensure safety of students: Tara
Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, has directed the managements of all private schools to ensure safety of the students in their premises and also when they are being transported between their home and school in the school buses. He asked the school managements to depute alert and efficient staff on the buses ferrying the students.

Jammu, February 8
Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD), Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan, today set February 21 deadline for home delivery of cooking gas in the municipal limits in Jammu and Srinagar.

The Minister set the deadline while chairing a meeting of the representatives of oil companies and senior officers of the CA&PD here today. He said spot delivery of LPG in the two cities would be available only till February 20.

Ramzan said home delivery in other towns of the state would start from May 15 and in the rural areas by July end. Maintaining that issuance of new subsidised gas connections was mandatory for every gas agency in the state, the Minister asked the consumers to avail the benefit after fulfilling all formalities. He said the rate fixed for the new gas connections by all oil companies is Rs 4,364 with two filled gas cylinders at subsidised rates along with other accessories, excluding the stove.

The oil companies have fixed Rs 1,450 as security for a cylinder (without gas), Rs 150 for the regulator, Rs 432 for cylinder refills weighing 14.2 kg in Srinagar and Rs 420 in Jammu.

Charges for red book have been fixed at Rs 35, installation charges Rs 35, cost of pipe Rs 180 and charges for stove inspection purchased from the market, Rs 200.

It has also been made mandatory for the consumers to buy only ISI mark stoves.

Referring to frequent complaints lodged by the consumers against LPG gas dealers, the minister directed both Directors of the CA&PD to take strict action against those involved in malpractices.

Jammu, February 8
The Department of Agriculture has deputed monitoring teams to make an on the spot assessment of the damage to vegetable, berseem, wheat, and mustard crops due to the hailstorm in specific pockets of Jammu, Kathua, Samba and Reasi districts on February 5.A high-level team of officers comprising Director Agriculture, Jammu Ajay Khajuria, along with Joint Director, Agriculture Inputs, Sushil Sahni, Chief Agriculture Officer, Jammu, Jatinder Sharma and other officers of the department visited Chohana Chak, Karloop, Tikri Khani, Akalpur-Sarora, Poni Chak and other areas of Marh sub division in Jammu to assess damage to the crops. The teams took note of heavy damage to the crops in the fields while farmers' deputations also met the Director Agriculture and reported 80-90 per cent damage to vegetables and mustard, 30-40 per cent damage to berseem and 20-25 per cent damage caused to the wheat crop.

Instructions were issued by the Director Agriculture to field officers to immediately make a detailed assessment of the losses and the Chief Agriculture Officers concerned have been advised to furnish crop and area-wise damage report within two days. The issue would be taken up with the revenue authorities and the government to label the areas as affected due to natural calamity.

Jammu, February 8
Unable to stop incidents of baby thefts, the administration of Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital, the oldest health institution in the state has come out with a new idea to introduce token system for attendants in its premises.

The 'token system' has been introduced to ensure foolproof security of newborns inside the Labour Room of the hospital.

Sources said the attendants of every patient to be given a token inscribed with a number and the same number would be written on the tag which will be tied to the newborns in the Labour Room.

"The attendants will have to show the token to the hospital staff before they enter the Labour Room and before any interaction with their patients. They will be allowed to see the newborns only if their token number matches with the tag on the infant," sources said.

Sources said the token system had been introduced to "isolate and identify" thieves who were active in and around the hospital. “The hospital staff on duty would be made directly accountable in case of baby thefts," they said.

Earlier, the administration had installed 16 Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at different locations inside the hospital but it failed to yield desired results so far.

On February 1, a woman suspected to be a baby thief, entered the Labour Room with her face covered and allegedly stole a baby boy. Though the police and the hospital administration scanned the CCTV camera footage, yet they failed to recover the missing baby.

A senior health department official said the hospital administration should take all "corrective measures" to avoid such incidents which had brought a bad repute to this prestigious health institution.

"Apart from installation of CCTV cameras and introduction of token system, a lot needs to be done. There is immediate need to intensify vigil in the hospital complex and the hospital administration with the assistance of the police should make efforts to identify the gang of thieves and break the nexus, if any, with the staff," the official said.

Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister for Medical Education, while ordering a thorough inquiry into the recent incident of baby theft had assured that there would be strict regulation in the existing system to ensure that such incidents don't occur in future. Besides, he had also stressed on the fixing of responsibility of the hospital staff concerned, saying no one would be spared for any laxity on their part.

tied to safety The attendants will have to show the token to the hospital staff before they enter the Labour Room and before any interaction with their patients Attendants will be allowed to see the newborns only if the token number matches with the tag tied to the baby The hospital staff on duty would be accountable in case of a baby theft

Jammu, February 8
Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmad Khan said Jammu and Kashmir was going to take some new initiatives during the next financial year, to reduce the infant and neo-natal mortality rate in the state.

He said the government had sought assistance from the United Nations Operations (UNOPS) and Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) in this regard. These organisations would work in collaboration with the State Health Department.

Khan said this on the second day of the ongoing three-day national-level health conference on “survival of child and development” at Chennai. He was speaking on the sub-topic ‘mother and child health care’.

He said UNOPS and NIPI would work on two broad sets of interventions. A new set of proven district-based interventions would be introduced to maximise the impact on neo-natal mortality reduction which would include provision of maternal new-born aide (Yashodha) in the hospitals, Special Newbern Care Units (SNCU)-plus for care and follow up of new-born after discharge from SNCU.

He said technical support for strengthening the already initiated new-born and child health interventions would also be provided, which include home based new-born care, establishment of Sick New-born Care Unit, acceleration of routine immunisation and improvement of district vaccine store in the state.

Khan said Facility Based New-Born Care Units (FBNC) had significant potential for improving the new-born survival in the state. He said under the programme, 10 Special Newbern Care Units (SNCUs) had been setup at District Hospitals, 72 new-born Stabilisation Units (NBSUs) at Community Health Centres and 273 Newborn Care Corners (NBCCs) at the delivery points in the state.

Batote, February 8
A blind murder case of a villager was solved by the Ramban police with the arrest of an accused from the same panchayat.

According to the police sources, the dead body of Gian Singh of Bhata Telimagra, Ramban, was recovered from a nallah near Silla village with multiple injuries on December 27.

During the investigation, the special team constituted by the SP of Ramban, Anil Magotra, found out that on the fateful day Singh, who was carrying Rs 8,000 had boarded a vehicle from Ramban to Telimagra along with the accused.

After alighting from the bus both had started walking towards their homes.

The accused knew that Singh was carrying the money. He followed and killed him and threw his body in a nallah before robbing him off his money.

The accused, identified as Nazir Ahmed of Silla Seri, Ramban, confessed to the crime during interrogation and was arrested under Section 302 of the RPC.

Jammu, February 8
The Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture & Languages (JKAACL) announced the Best Book Award-2011 in seven languages, carrying the amount of Rs 51,000 each. The awards, instituted to encourage quality literature, would be given at a special function later.

Announcing this, Secretary of JKAACL, Khalid Bashir Ahmad on Friday said books in seven languages, including Dogri, English, Hindi, Kashmiri, Ladakhi, Punjabi and Urdu had been awarded. He said no book in Pahari, Dardi and Gojri could be awarded as even the minimum of three books each in these languages were not received for the competition.

Khalid said the Best Book Award -2011 in Dogri had gone to Trifla by Narsingh Dev Jamwal, in English to The Reflection of Ladakh, Tibet & Central Asia by Abdul Gani Sheikh, in Hindi to Kishtwar — Sanskriti aur Parampara by Shiv Nirmohi, in Kashmiri to Yath Angnas Manz by Makhan Lal Kanwal, in Ladakhi to Nubray Nas Shad by Urgain Rigzin, in Punjabi to Jammu Kashmir De Punjabi Geetan Vich Samkaleen Samaj Di Jhalak by Dr Sushil Sharma and in Urdu to Kitabul Mosiqui by Mohammad Amin Lala.

Besides the award money, the winners would also be presented a memento, citation and a shawl, the Secretary said. Giving details, Khalid said 28 books were received for the competition in Kashmiri language, followed by 20 in Urdu, 19 in Dogri, 13 in English, 10 in Hindi, 9 in Punjabi and 3 in Ladakhi. He said only 2 books were received in Gojri language and 1 each in Pahari and Dardi. As per the rules of the academy, books in each language were sent for adjudication to a set of three experts, approved by the Central Committee. The books for the award were selected on the basis of their evaluation. In case of difference of opinion of the three experts, the cumulative marks assigned to a book by them were counted to decide the winner.

Rajouri, February 8
To take stock of the situation, Member of Parliament from Jammu-Poonch constituency seat, Madan Lal Sharma is on a week-long tour of the twin bordering districts of Rajouri and Poonch from today.

Since the early morning, Sharma chaired several meetings with panches, sarpanches and local citizens. He heard their demands, their grievances and assured suitable solution of their problems, sources said.

In the afternoon, he chaired a high-level vigilance monitoring meeting at Dak Banglow, Rajouri, where all senior officials of the district were present, and discussed several plans for the redress of peoples’ problems. Additional District Commissioner, Matloob Khan was also present their in the meeting. Sharma would be on a tour of Poonch district from tomorrow to meet the people of the region.

Jammu, February 8
Minister for R&B and Mechanical Engineering, Abdul Majid Wani, today said the state government had taken up construction of several major and minor bridges to upgrade road connectivity in the state, a perquisite for socio-economic development flow.

He inspected work on the 750-m 4th Tawi Bridge at Baghwati Nagar-Balicharana yesterday. Commissioner Secretary R&B, Tanveer Jehan, Chief Engineer R&B, Tehseen Mustafa, MD JKPCC, IA Hamal and other officers accompanied him.

Started in 2010 at the cost of Rs 147 crore, work on the bridge is in its final phase and is likely to be opened for traffic by April.

Wani asked the executing agency to complete work on the 930-m four lane approach road from Hotel Asia, 700 m two lane approach road from Bikram Chowk and 1.4 km four lane approach road from Canal Head, to the bridge. He said the bridge, along with its connecting approach roads, will provide smooth entry and exit for commuters. This would ease the traffic situation in the city. “It will also enhance connectivity between various points, reduce travel time and improve traffic regulation system,” he added.

Rajouri, February 8
Thirteen Veer Naris of Sunderbani Tehsil were felicitated in a function organised by Kalidhar Brigade, under the aegis of Crossed Swords Division. The ceremony was presided over by Padmashree Patnaik, Chairperson, FWO Crossed Swords Division, who interacted with the awardees and distributed shawls and cash as a token to them.

Various other activities like cultural and traditional programme were also organised by the families of Kalidhar Brigade in the honour of the brave ladies. Other than the 13 brave women, 55 families attended the ceremony. All the awardees expressed their gratitude to the Army for its noble gesture. — OC