Jammu, March 17
Although there is large-scale embezzlement going on in distribution of foodgrains during the past many decades in Jammu and Kashmir, no verification of stock entries has taken place in godowns of the state.

CAPD minister Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan revealed this in the Legislative Assembly on Sunday. The minister said directions have been passed to verify stock entries in all the godowns of the state.

“Inquiries into all the embezzlement cases are being expedited. Such officers and officials would not be given important assignments in the department who have been found involved in any misappropriation in the past,” said Ramzan.

Officials said orders have been passed to all storekeepers of the state to ensure daily remittance of cash in their respective treasuries and banks. Storekeepers working in municipal limits of Srinagar and Jammu have been directed to remit the cash on a daily basis while rural storekeepers shall remit it in four days.

Ration coupons will be submitted at district level, rather directorate level, and panchayat representatives have been empowered to verify stock quantity, quality and its distribution among the consumers.

Underlining the importance of consumer affairs, the minister said steps were being taken to strengthen consumer affairs wing of the department and Consumer Affairs Act 1987 is being amended in consultation with all the stakeholders.

The minister said action plan of Rs 74 crore for completion of end-to-end computerisation was earlier submitted to the Union government for implementation. He said the project will be completed in two components, one consisting of digitalisation of data, computerisation supply of chain management and setting up of transparency portal.

The government says the department has given its recommendations regarding the Bill as per the need of the state. He said the passage of the Bill is the only way out to fill the gap of ration of about 16,500 metric tonne.

He said the recommendations sent by the state regarding Food Security Bill provide for 90% rations in rural areas and 80% in urban areas and the requirements of the remainder percentage would be met using the state’s own resources.

Jammu, March 17
Former Deputy Chairman of Legislative Council (LC) Arvinder Singh Micky today said he has always favoured construction of a flyover from BC Road to Amphalla and the project should be completed on a fast-track basis.

A few days back, The Tribune carried a report about pressure by some influential persons having residential and commercial properties towards purported delay in construction of the flyover.

Addressing a press conference, Micky claimed as a presiding officer and Member of Legislative Council, he raised this issue several times in the Legislative Council, which is on record.

“Even during District Development Board (DDB) meetings, I demanded expansion of BC Road and told the government during several meetings that the work should be started by razing the compound wall and the work should be started from my house,” Micky said.

He said these projects are to be approved and funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the delay is only from their side.

He said that R&B Minister Majid Wani was also apprised about the need for speeding up the work on the project to streamline chaotic traffic flow in the city.

On maintenance of roads, Micky said, “The R&B minister has agreed on repair and maintenance of the roads of Janipur, Sarwal, New Plot and Talab tillo.”

Micky also met the higher authorities of the traffic department for installation of traffic lights at Balbinder Chowk for smooth traffic flow.

They said it would be done in the coming months.

Jammu, March 17
Though the Ranjit Sagar Dam in Kathua district has a huge potential to become a major water sports venue, the authorities are yet to take concrete steps to promote adventure sports.

Sources said the National Institute of Water Sports, Goa, had conducted a thorough survey and suggested that the site could become an international hub of water sports activities.

It has been learnt from reliable sources that around seven activities were recommended in the survey report to develop the dam as a water sports spot, but nothing concrete has been done in this regard so far. Even prominent citizens of the area had pitched for its development. They alleged that the government was not initiating any steps to promote water sports therein.

Sources further said after the survey by National Institute of Water Sports, the government had offered tender notice but the response was very poor. Tenders were once again issued by the authorities but the result remained the same.

“On the one hand, the government stresses for the vital consequence of promoting water sports activities in the state but on the other hand, it is not showing any keenness to conduct activities at this place,” said sources.

“Despite being lucrative from the sports point of view, the area which also includes 23 kilometre stretch of lake, has great potential to attract tourists across the country but the government is not interested to develop such sports in the province and hence steps are not been initiated towards this exercise,” a prominent citizen of the area said.

“If the government takes proper measures to promote water sports, there is a great scope for hosting Water Sports Festival at his venue. Events like water polo, kayaking and canoeing, swimming, dragon boat race, demb boat race and water skiing can become a major source of attraction during the festival but looking the present scenario, it still seems a distant dream to see development of this venue,” he added.

Jammu, March 17
State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jugal Kishore Sharma urged the nationalist forces in the state to remain united. Sharma was speaking at a Shivratri Milan organised by Panun Kashmir (PK), a frontal organisation of displaced Kashmiri Hindus.

The event was organised by the women wing of organisation and was attended by a large number of people.

Sharma, who was chief guest on the occasion, said the Pandit community had been the torch bearers in the religious-cultural field. The community had to face the worst times because of the wrong policies and follies of the governments but the community had shown resilience and had contributed to the nationalist cause in all circumstances, he said. Others who spoke on the occasion included Ramakant Dubey, president, VHP, Dr Jitender Singh, Ashok Khajuria, MLA, Surender Mohan Agarwal, Shamsher Singh Jamwal, Shakti Dutt Sharma, Priya Sethi and Ravinder Raina.

Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, president, PK, said the nationalist forces in the state had a bounden duty to espouse the years-old heritage of the state. The recent political storm created by the execution of Afzal Guru is a serious challenge.

Four prominent activists were honoured for their outstanding contribution to the society. Deeneshwar Singh Jamwal, Shriyans Kumar Jain, Manmeet Singh and Kanchan Sharma were conferred special awards. — TNS

Rajouri, March 17
Expressing their anger towards government attitude, Jammu and Kashmir Rehbare Talim Teacher (ReT) Forum Rajouri set a deadline today at a meeting, demanding six months’ pending salary before March 25.

Aftab Tantray, state general secretary, lambasted the state government for not releasing salary of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers for the past six months owing to indifference towards 70,000 ReT teachers across the state.

He said, “If our salary is not released by the deadline set by the forum, we would be left with no other option but to gherao the Assembly in Jammu and the government would be responsible for the consequences.” Jahangir Khan, president, Peer Panchal unit of JK ReT forum, said, “Government is diverting our attention from other genuine demands like inclusion of 5 years’ rendered period of ReT in service records and enhancement of wages up to basic salary.” — OC

Batote, March 17
“I was inspired by school-going children and being illiterate, I used to feel like a big loser. I now realise that education is the biggest asset for a person, which stands one in good stead in adversity,” said Nizamudin Choudhary.

Nizamudin,80, was among the 29 “adult” candidates including the 14 females who had come to appear in the level-I exam under the Sakshar Bharat Mission (SBM) alongwith his 24-year-old son, Mohd Rafiq and nephew Abdul Rashid, 44, sarpanch, Rakhjudog, at the Government Middle School, Batote today.

According to the ZEO, Batote, VK Gupta, 400 adults had appeared in the exam in the Batote education zone today.

“Now I feel that the light has come into my life in real sense. This is a good scheme by the government but more higher-level courses should be introduced in J&K,” said Nizamudin.

According to the District Coordinator, SBM, NA Ittu, 1500 “adults” took their level-I examination under the SBM in the 124 exam centres of as many panchayats across Ramban district today.

This exam is conducted simultaneously in all the states across the country.

SBM, a nationwide flagship programme, was started in India in 2009 and formally in J&K in 2011.

According to Chief Education Officer VK Soni, 5,040 candidates had appeared in the level-I exam on August 26 last year. The next level-I exam will be organised in August this year.

Jammu, March 17
Under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), 24 more resource centres for the Children with Special Needs (CWSN) are being set up at the upper primary schools of the state with a prime objective to bring 3,485 differently-abled children under main schooling.

These schools are equipped with requisite aids and appliances to promote enrolment and retention in the schools of children with special needs suffering from variables of disability.

This was stated by Mohammad Rafi, advisor, state Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) mission, after inaugurating a five-day workshop on “Challenges in Inclusive Education of Children with Special Needs” at Ranbir Higher Secondary School.

Rafi said 48 special educators/teachers had been appointed and 200 more such posts would be created for strengthening the resource support for inclusive education of the the CWSN. He said in a recent survey, 34,895 children, in the age group of 6 to 14 years, had been identified, and was suffering by different types of disabilities.

Of them, 2,904 were enrolled in schools and a sustainable support structure was sought to be provided for them in the school system.

Rafi said during the current fiscal, 81 assessment camps were organised (under SSA) covering 201 education zones across the state and assistive devices worth Rs 60 lakh were distributed among the CWSN. Besides, 27 cleft surgeries and 35 other (minor) surgeries of the Children with Special Needs were also organised. 

Jammu, March 17
The Business School, University of Jammu, in collaboration with the National HRD Network today organised an industry-academia conference on the theme ‘Managing in the New Era: Shaping Young Minds’.

MLC Davinder Singh Rana was the chief guest on the occasion. In his address, Rana appreciated the creation of the platform wherein educational institutions could perform a meaningful role in bringing together all the stakeholders for shaping young graduates.

P Dwarakanath, director, Human resource Capital, Max India, in his keynote address spoke on the theme. Prof Kulwant Kaur, Dean Research Studies, University of Jammu, spoke about the need and importance of increased industry-academia interfaces for the benefit of both industry and the management graduates.

Dhananjaya Singh, executive director, NHRD Network, apprised the audience with the code of conduct. Earlier, Prof Versha Mehta, director, The Business School, 
emphasised the need to strengthen the linkages between industry and academia by bringing about new initiatives and providing platform where students can develop skill sets that were needed by the industry.

The afternoon session of the conference had interactive sessions on preparing students for the future wherein Sameer Kaul, vice-president (Marketing), Dr Lal Path Labs and Blesson George, Head-Business HR, Jubilant Life Sciences made presentations and answered queries of the students. 

Jammu, March 17
The National Mazdoor Conference (NMC) has urged the Prime Minister to immediately start the process for constituting the 7th Pay Commission, besides holding discussion with the representatives of Central and state government employees, to finalise its modalities.

While briefing the mediapersons here today, NMC president Subash Shastri appealed to the authorities for the implementation of recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission in favour of the Central and state government employees and pensioners. He also demanded that a special package should be provided by the Union Government to the state government.

Referring to the memorandum submitted by the NMC to the Prime Minister, UPA chairperson and Union Finance Minister in New Delhi, Shastri demanded that 50 per cent of the DA should be merged into basic pay and pension, besides sanctioning 20 per cent interim relief and due DA instalment, to neutralise the effect of steep rise in the cost of living.

Other demands of the NMC include amendment in the SRO 64 to facilitate regularisation of daily wagers engaged after March 1994, time-bound implementation of policy for regularisation of daily wagers, who have completed seven years of service in March, hike in wages of daily-rated workers to Rs 10,000 per month, enhancement of medical allowance of employees and pensioners, immediate release of salary of motivators working in IWDP at Akhnoor, besides their regularisation and issuance of regularisation orders of 180 daily wagers of the RDD of Jammu region.

Rajan Babu Khajuria, Sham Lal Sharma, Amit Luthra, Rakesh Padha, Raghu Pal, Yograj, Com Barkat Ram, Surinder Kumar, Subash Sharma, Anil Singh Slathia and Sunil Kochhar were also present on the occasion. 

Jammu, March 17
The annual drama festival organised by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages got underway at the Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar auditorium, here today.

During the festival, nine plays in different languages, including Hindustani, Dogri, Hindi, Punjabi and Kashmiri, will be staged by as many theatre groups of the state.

Academy secretary Khalid Bashir Ahmad said the festival was held under an approved scheme of the academy to promote and propagate theatre in the state. He said the entries were invited from theatre groups of the state which were evaluated for inclusion in the festival.

A panel of three theatre experts would watch the plays and adjudicate these for best awards in production, direction, costume, music, lighting, and set designing, he said.

The academy is holding the drama festival and theatre workshops since 1964.

The festival will open with Hatak, a play in Hindustani directed by Tapeshwar Datta, on March 17 and conclude on March 27, coinciding with the World Theatre Day.

He said the other plays to be presented during the festival include Us Noo Kahin (Punjabi), directed by TS Premi, on March 18, Raj Darshan (Hindi), directed by Aditya Bhanu, on March 19, Rath Main Kanger Wuchh Main Dav (Kashmiri), directed by Vijay Dhar, on March 21, Solution X (Dogri), directed by Vijay Goswami, on March 22, The Government Inspector (Hindi), directed by Abhishek Bharti, on March 24, Do Kori Ka Khel (Hindi), directed by Ifra Mushtaq Kak, on March 25, Padav (Hindi), directed by Vikram Sharma, on March 26 and Abhigyan Shakuntalam (Dogri), directed by Ravinder Sharma, on March 27. 

Jammu, March 17
Natrang today, in its Sunday Theatre Series, staged Saadat Hasan Manto’s Urdu play ‘Khudkushi’ at Natrang Studio Theatre, Kachi Chawni here. Directed by Neeraj Kant, the play reflects the importance of life, driving home the point that problems and worries that may make a person think about ending life are not worth considering as life is a gift of God.

In the play’s opening scene, a girl was mourning the death of her lover. Feeling like her world had come crashing down, she decided to commit suicide. But before that, she thought of taking permission from her uncle, whom she held responsible for the death of her soulmate.

Her uncle, who was more concerned about his reputation, had very little feelings for her niece and permitted her to end her life on the condition that he himself would write a suicide note for her.

In the meantime, ‘Heer’ (of the Heer-Ranjha legend) appeared on the scene. She looked very upset as she was followed by ‘Ranjha’. Heer explained to her the pain of other couples in love like Soni-Mahiwal, Laila-Majnu and Sasi-Punoo.

Heer finally convinced the girl that love was not worth dying for.

The girl changed her mind and realised how important life was.

Artists who performed in the play included Sajra Qadir, Anita Dhar, Rahul Singh and Vineet Sharma. Music was operated by Uplaksh Singh Kotwal and the lights were executed by Ankush Lakhnotra. Mohammad Yaseen and Ashwani Bali designed the sets while Sumeet Sharma coordinated the show.

Jammu, March 17
The J&K State Sports Council, after examining the recommendations of its standing committee, has granted recognition to four new sports associations.

With that, the total number of affiliated sports bodies has now increased to 52 from the existing 48.

Sources said the state sports council had decided to grant recognition to four new sports associations on continued implementation of sports council guidelines issued from time to time.

The sports bodies included the All J&K Sports Association of the Deaf, the J&K Baseball Association, the J&K State Rugby Association and the J&K Rifle Association. Sources said the recognition case of the J&K Tug-of-War Association was decided to be taken up in the next meeting after watching their activities on ground afresh.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also the president of autonomous sports body, while convening the general council meeting recently had desired to categorise the games A, B and C on the basis of their popularity and performance in the state so that the focus was made on such disciplines wherein sportspersons could excel and bring laurels. This would also be a guideline for funding the state sports associations in three categories.

Sources said the state sports council, secretary, informed the house that there was a dire need to prepare balance sheets in the sports council at least for the last five years starting from 2008-09 to 2012-13, besides conduction of audit of the account from 2010-11 onwards, till the current financial year.

Sources said the house had approved M/S Ajay Sawhney and co-chartered accountants by benchmarking the terms and conditions on the lines as approved for other PSUs in the state for the said job.

It was also apprised in the meeting that the action taken by Sports Minister (vice-president, Sports Council) in constituting the district sports councils in 10 identified districts in the first phase was referred to the standing committee for making recommendations. 

The sports bodies include the All J&K Sports Association of the Deaf, the J&K Baseball Association, the J&K State Rugby Association and the J&K Rifle Association.

The recognition case of the J&K Tug-of-War Association will be taken up in the next meeting after watching their activities on ground afresh.

Jammu, March 17
Parihar Cricket Club (PCC) beat Rocky Cricket Club (RCC) by six wickets to advance into the quarterfinals of the ongoing T20 cricket tournament being played at Sarore village playfield here today.

Batting first after winning the toss, PCC accumulated a challenging total of 158 runs for the loss of eight wickets. PCC got off to a disastrous start by losing both openers but the middle-order batsmen showed some guts and played with application.

Mohit was the top scorer with a defiant 45-ball 67 studded with five hits to the fence. He was ably supported by Naresh, who contributed handy 34 runs in as many balls. In the beginning, PCC bowlers managed to restrict the batsmen but they lacked sting in the middle overs that eventually made way for the RCC batsmen to gather the momentum.

Vikram and Sumit shared three wickets apiece while Arun snared two wickets. Chasing 159 runs to win, PCC did the needful in 19.2 overs losing just four wickets in the process. Vikas played a match-winning knock of 67 runs with the help of eight boundaries.