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Protesters paint streets red
Teenager’s killing |
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Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
Private schools ignore govt order
Shopian district hospital missed deadline eight months ago
Bar Association to hold seminar on proposed police law
Army to continue promoting local talent: GoC
Minister takes stock of essential supplies
Floral tributes paid to two policemen
Shopkeeper held with cannabis in Baramulla
Cook found hanging
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Protesters paint streets red
Srinagar, March 2 The “paint red” protest which included tying red ribbons to cars, shops and houses and spraying red paint, as a mark of solidarity, had been called by Mutahidda Majlis-e-Mushawarat (joint consultative council). Red paint had been sprayed on several roads in the city, including the Residency Road and Maisuma locality, while most of the shopkeepers at the main commercial centre, Lal Chowk, and all its adjoining markets had tied red cloth outside their shops. Many vehicles, including motorcycles, plying on the city roads had red ribbons tied to them. Eyewitnesses said police personnel later washed the red paint from the roads and many vehicles were being stopped and their drivers were asked to remove the red ribbons. Reports of a similar protest were received from south Kashmir’s Anantnag district where red paint had been sprayed on roads and red ribbons were tied to many vehicles. The return of bodies of Guru and Butt is being demanded from all across the Kashmir’s political spectrum with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and opposition People’s Democratic Party leader Mufti Muhammad Sayeed having written letters to the Prime Minister and separatists calling for protests and shutdowns. Mutahidda Majlis-e-Mushawarat, which was formed earlier this week after the moderate faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference had objected to the protest programme called by its hardline counterpart and demanded a joint platform be formed for issuing further protest and shutdown “calendars”, is now spearheading the protest campaign. Both factions of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, hardliners led by Syed Ali Geelani and moderates led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Dukhataran-e-Millat, Jamaat-e-Islami and High Court Bar Association are part of the new council, which issued its first protest programme this week calling for a series of protests throughout the week and a shutdown on Friday to demand return of bodies of Guru and Butt. Parliament attack convict Guru was hanged in Tihar Jail on February 9 this year, while Butt, who was the founder of the JKLF, was hanged on February 11, 1984. Both of them remain buried inside the Tihar jail. For the past 23 years, the years of the armed insurgency, February 11 is being observed as a shutdown day to demand the return of Butt’s body. The demand has got reinvigorated after the hanging and burial of Guru in Tihar jail. Separatists have warned to continue the protests till bodies of the two men are returned to their families in Kashmir. |
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Teenager’s killing
Srinagar, March 2 A total of 14 civilian witnesses have so for deposed before the BSF court. On February 28, five civilian witnesses had recorded their statements before the court. “Today, two persons from our locality appeared before the BSF court. They had been summoned by the BSF authorities to appear before the court on March 2,” Farooq Ahmad Sheikh, father of the slain youth, told The Tribune. He said Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh and Imran Hassan, both neighbours of the teenaged boy, appeared before the court at Panthachowk Battalion Headquarters of the BSF. “The BSF authorities have also summoned me and my neighbour Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh before the court as witnesses on March 4”, Farooq added. Apart from civilian witnesses, 26 BSF personnel and a policeman, two forensic as well as equal number of horticulture experts have recorded their statements before the GSFC so for. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police which probed the matter had named 85
persons, including 27 BSF personnel as witnesses in the case and recorded their statements accordingly. The witnesses named in the chargesheet also included 15 civilians. Zahid Farooq, a teenaged boy from Brein, Nishat, was killed in firing by BSF men on February 5,
2010, in Nishat area of Srinagar. The police, after registering an FIR in the
incident, had arrested BSF commander RK Birdi and his subordinate and charged them for
murder under Section 302 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). Both the accused were later handed over to the BSF authorities by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Srinagar, for trying them before a BSF-appointed General Security Forces Court. The police chargesheet had named 15 civilian witnesses in the case, of whom, 12 have appeared before the GSFC so far. ZAHID FAROOQ CASE
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Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
Srinagar, March 2 The residential school is meant to provide education and lodging facilities to girl students from Scheduled Tribe, Below Poverty Line and Other Backward Classes categories at Deegam village. The district administration, which is the implementing agency of the Centrally-sponsored scheme, said the construction work of the school building would be started shortly. As per the Shopian district administration figures, Rs 93 lakh had been provided by the Central Government for the construction of the school which would spread over 20 kanals of land in the
village. Around 50 girl students at elementary education level who have been inducted into the programme would receive education, boarding and lodging facilities under the programme. District Development Commissioner, Shopian,. Mohammad Javaid Khan said the Shopian tehsildar had been directed to demarcate a piece of land and executive engineer, Roads and Buildings Department, would undertake the responsibility of construction of the residential school building. |
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Private schools become choosy over uniform
Srinagar, March 2 Prices of school uniforms vary from shop to shop, but a few schools have asked the students to buy uniform from selected garment stores in the city. These shopkeepers in alleged tie-up with school administrations are charging exorbitant prices for school uniforms. Parents said school uniforms purchased from any other shop was not acceptable to the school administration. They said the schools and shopkeepers share money the parents pay extra for buying uniforms from selected shops. “As I went to my children’s school to deposit tuition fees, they asked me to go to a particular store at Lal Chowk and buy uniform from there. I asked them the reasons behind it. They said the colour of the winter coat being sold by the shop is only accepted by the school authorities. I think this is not justified,” said Muhammad Shaban, a parent. He said the coats, sweaters and trousers being sold by the selected shops were priced Rs 200- Rs 300 higher than the normal shops. “We are forced to buy uniform from these selected shops since the other uniforms would be rejected by the schools. It is better to pay extra money rather than having these uniforms rejected completely. I am not sure how parents who have a mediocre income would afford these “branded uniforms” which are too expensive,” said Maroofa, a housewife and mother of two school going children. In case of textbooks, although the rules laid down by schools aren’t too stringent, however, in order to avoid any last minute scuffles with the school managements, parents are going by the suggestions made by schools. “Most of the schools have NCERT textbooks in the curriculum. However, schools like Delhi Public School have CBSE textbooks. I don’t think there is any reason as to why the schools will ask us to buy from a particular shop like in case of uniforms,” Maroofa added. Parents have urged the School Education Department to crack whip down on private schools like that of private coaching centres. “The state government was tough while dealing with the private coaching centres. The same should be done with the schools which are turning into business centres,” said Shafqat Nisar, an academician. The School Education Department has asked the parents to constitute a representative body and come forward to express their grievances. “We have not received any complaints from parents directly. We are getting calls from media about this. Let them approach us over this issue,” an official in the Directorate of School Education said. |
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Private schools ignore govt order
Anantnag, March 2 The schools which were closed during the vacation have also opened, throwing the government orders of extending the vacation to the wind. “It is becoming a norm with the private institutes. They keep running their schools under the garb of running coaching classes and gullible parents fall prey to it,” said
Reyaz Ahmad, a college lecturer. He said the authorities had so far failed to take notice of this practice, which had emboldened the owners of these institutions to do whatever they felt benefited them. Parents say that they did not have any choice in this regard. They say their wards were treated indifferently at their schools if they don’t attend classes during the vacation. “Some parents didn’t send their children for these classes. However, the treatment their wards used to get in the school afterwards has changed the trend,” said Muhammad Iqbal, a parent. Parents said private schools were also minting money in the name of providing heating arrangement and other things. “We have to shell out a hefty amount of money for the so-called heating arrangements and many other things. These
are just money-minting tactics of the school authorities,” says Ahmad, a parent. The school managements maintain that they
have proper heating facilities for students and that they cannot wait for
the vacations to get over. |
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Shopian district hospital missed deadline eight months ago
Anantnag, March 2 “The hospital was scheduled to be completed in May 2012, but more than six months after missing the deadline it remains far from completion,” said
the source. The residents said the existing Sub-District Hospital was not well equipped to cater to healthcare needs of the district and the new hospital was meant to ease off the pressure. “Residents of the district remain dependent on the District Hospital in Pulwama and hospitals in
Srinagar. The new hospital was a ray of hope but the pace at which the construction work is going on, it will take years to fully make the hospital functional,” said Abdul Shakoor, a local resident. The Pulwama hospital, too, remains overburdened as most of the people from Shopian visit it. “All people cannot afford to take their patients to Srinagar and therefore prefer the District Hospital in Pulwama putting undue pressure on the hospital,” said Ghulam Mohiuddin, another resident. The district administration, however, maintains that a project this big cannot be completed in such a short period of time due to financial restrains. “It is a more than Rs 23 crore project and it is impossible to get this much of funds within a short period of time,” said Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC), Shopian, Muhammad Javed Khan. He said Minister of State for Health Shyam Lal Sharma visited the hospital some time ago and advised that the work to be completed in a phased manner. “The first phase of the hospital, worth more
than Rs 6 crore, will be hopefully completed by the end of this year,” said the
DDC. |
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Bar Association to hold seminar on proposed police law
Srinagar, March 2 “The Bar Association has decided to hold a seminar on the proposed J&K Police Bill 2013 on March 5 at Sadder Court Complex in Srinagar. Lawyers from various courts of the state will be invited to express their views,” a spokesman for the Kashmir Bar Association said in a statement here. The draft was made public by the authorities on February 15 and suggestions were sought within two weeks. However, the Bill has evoked a lot of criticism from different quarters, with opposition People’s Democratic Party saying it would oppose the Bill if introduced in the House in its present form. In a bid to allay the criticism of the Bill, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had on Tuesday said there was “no chance” that a bad legislation could pass through such a tight scrutiny. “The government in the garb of modernising the police force has virtually gone to the primitive stage when men with muscular power, goons and renegades were ruling the state and citizens had no say,” the spokesman said. “The Bill has generated a controversy as the liberty and security of a common man will be curtailed through it,” he said. |
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Army to continue promoting local talent: GoC
Srinagar, March 2 The GoC said this during a function held on the completion of the 5th ski course of this season at the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering (IISM), Gulmarg, in north Kashmir. He also complimented the IISM staff for offering adventure sports courses that include skiing, water skiing, parasailing, hot air ballooning and trekking. Principal, IISM, JS Dhillon said in the 5th ski course, 15 children from the Army goodwill school, Ziran near Tangmarg, were sponsored by the Army. He said 30 more local boys were being sponsored by the Army from Lolab in the next course. “Some of the boys sponsored by the Army last year have become state champions and will represent the country at international levels in future,” he added. He said aspirants from different parts of the county, including IT professionals, engineers, commercial pilots and management experts, had learnt skiing at basic, intermediate and advance levels at the IISM. Dhillon also briefed the GoC over various activities being undertaken by the IISM. He said the institute planned to introduce more activities related to adventure sports such as paragliding, mountaineering and white water
rafting. Meanwhile, the GoC also gave away prizes to the winners of different adventure sports events that were held recently at Gulmarg. |
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Minister takes stock of essential supplies
Srinagar, March 2 This was conveyed to Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution and Transport Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan by Kashmir CAPD director Mushtaq Ahmad while the minister was taking stock of essential supplies. The minister directed officials to ensure home delivery of LPG cylinders in Srinagar and Jammu cities initially and then provide the service in other places. He directed senior officers of the CAPD to streamline the department at all levels. He made some on-the-spot decisions and asked the officers concerned to implement them in letter and spirit. The minister asked all Assistant Directors of CAPD working at the district level to be responsible for the receipt of ration and submission of utilisation certificate and remittance of money on a weekly basis. He said there should be no advance supply of ration for the next month till submission of utilisation certificate and proper remittance of money is done. He said coupon verification should be held at the district level. |
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Floral tributes paid to two policemen
Srinagar, March 2 Constable Santosh Kumar Singh and Constable Azad Chand were shot dead by suspected militants near the old bus stand in Handwara
at 11.10 am. Both the constables were appointed in 2009 and presently posted with the Handwara Police Station. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned killing of the two policemen and described it a cowardly act. In a message to the bereaved families, the Chief Minister conveyed his sympathy and solidarity with them and
prayed for peace to the departed soils. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti also condemned killing of the two constables. In a statement, Mehbooba expressed her grief with the bereaved families. |
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Shopkeeper held with cannabis in Baramulla
Srinagar, March 2 A case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered against Khan at the Uri Police Station, the spokesman said. |
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Cook found hanging
Srinagar, March 2 The police registered a case and initiated inquest proceeding to investigate the cause and circumstances of the death, the spokesperson said.
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