Kupwara March 18
A man allegedly killed his mother at Kawari village in Kupwara, 14 km from the district headquarters. Reports said Reshma Jan (55) suffered serious head-injury when her son Latif Ahmad Khan (40) allegedly hit her with an iron rod on Saturday at home. The victim was rushed to the Kupwara hospital from where she was referred to SKIMS, Soura, in Srinagar for treatment. The victim died at the hospital today.

A relative of deceased said the accused hit his mother in head following a heated verbal brawl with her over a piece of land.

“He would often get into heated arguments with his mother on one or the other issue,” he said.

Pall of gloom descended on Kawari village when the victim’s body reached home. The villagers took to the streets and held protests demanding action against the accused. They sought his immediate arrest and stern punishment under the law. They blocked the Trehgam-Kawari road for hours and raised slogans against the police.

“He should be given severe punishment. He is not a human and has committed heinous crime by killing his own mother,” said a local resident.

The protestors laid down the body of deceased on the road and refused to bury it unless the accused was arrested.

“We will not bury the body unless the killer son is put behind the bars. He is still roaming free and police is doing nothing,” said Mohd Yasin, a relative of the deceased.

Senior police officials rushed to the spot to pacify the protestors. They assured the locals that the accused would be arrested and punished under law. Following repeated assurances, the locals agreed to call off protests and buried the deceased’s body. Thousands of people took part in funeral.

The police this evening arrested the accused from a nearby village. “To evade arrest, he was hiding in Laderwan village since he committed the crime. A police party arrested him this evening and lodged him in the Trehgam police station,” police sources said. A case under section 323, 354, 302 has been registered in this regard. 

Anantnag, March 18
As many as 20 people were injured in road mishaps in the south Kashmir region today, police reports said. Reports said 15 people were injured after a passenger minibus, bearing number JK03-4475, rammed into a tree after the driver lost control over the vehicle.

The bus was on its way to Pulwama town when the mishap took place at Ganipora in the Newa area of the district. The driver was identified as Muhammad Shafi Dar of Dangerpora in Pulwama.

“All the injured persons were shifted to the District Hospital Pulwama,” a police statement said.

While most of the injured were discharged after preliminary treatment, six of them were shifted to the SK Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, for further treatment. The condition of one of the injured was stated to be critical, according to doctors at SKIMS.

Two people were injured near the railway track in Kulgam town after a passenger vehicle (Tata 407) bearing registration number JK03A-0262 and a Santro car bearing registration number JK03B-9653 collided.

The injured were identified as 25-year-old Javid Ahmad Dar, a resident of Khanabal in Anantnag and 24-year-old Waseem Ahmed Dar of Hanjidantar in Anantnag.

The injured were shifted to the District Hospital, Anantnag, for treatment.

Meanwhile, a van bearing registration number JK01L-8435 hit a motorcycle at Khudwani in Kulgam injuring the motorcyclist Bashir Ahmad Dar of Muniward in Anantnag. The injured was shifted to SKIMS, Srinagar, for treatment.

Srinagar, March 18
With no clear-cut norms set regarding the fee regulation of private schools in Kashmir valley, people are finding it hard to afford “decent education” for their wards.

Reports suggest that private schools in the Valley are charging hefty sums of money from parents in the form of admission and other monthly fees.

The government, however, is yet to set norms for regulating the fee structure.

The private schools are charging anywhere from Rs 10,000 to 50,000 as admission fee. Moreover, the monthly fee is also being charged arbitrarily.

“I have been talking to the administration of various schools to get my child enrolled,” said Mushtaq Ahmad Dar of Anantnag. “Even the schools with bare minimum infrastructure ask not less than Rs 12,000 as admission fee.”

Parents say there are other charges such as the monthly tuition fee and transportation charges which are to be paid.

“It is becoming a nightmare for the middle class people,” said Reyaz Ahmad, a parent and a government teacher.

“Government schools are in a pathetic condition and private schools are fast becoming unaffordable,” he added.

Their difficulty does not end there. With no government vigil in place, most of the private schools are forcing the parents to buy uniforms, books and other things from the stalls opened on their premises or of their choice.

“If we do not buy books and uniforms from the schools, our children will be treated indifferently by the school authorities,” said Mudassir Yousuf, a parent from Srinagar.

The authorities express helplessness over the issue.

“As of now, we do not have a say on the fee structure of schools,” said Muhammad Shafi Rather, Director, School Education, Kashmir.

“It is like any other market and the parents have to choose a school they can afford,” Rather maintains.

He is hopeful that the things will change for better in the near future. “There is a Judicial Commission set up by the Supreme Court in every state.”

Though the primary function of the commission is to put checks and balances on the fee structure in higher education institutions, the state government has requested it to preside over issues regarding school education as well.

“For school education, the Supreme Court had directed a new commission to be set-up. However, we have requested them to take school education into their ambit too,” said the director.

He says they will take all the stakeholders in the loop and regulate the fee structure.

Srinagar, March 18
Even as Kashmir valley continued to witness dry weather conditions, the Meteorological Department has forecast light showers, mainly in the upper reaches in the region tomorrow.

“Light rain will occur at one or two places during the next 24 hours,” an official of Meteorological Department said.

While the Valley has been witnessing fairly pleasant weather conditions after the arrival of spring, Srinagar city recorded 18.6 degree Celsius maximum temperature today. Tourist resort Pahalgam in south Kashmir and the border town of Kupwara recorded 14.8 and 18.7 degree Celsius maximum temperature respectively.

Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir, remained the warmest place in the Valley recording 19.1 degree Celsius maximum temperature.

Ski resort Gulmarg in north Kashmir remained the coldest place in the Valley recording 6.6 degree Celsius maximum temperature. Night temperature at the ski resort continued to remain sub-zero at minus 2.0 degree Celsius.

While Srinagar, Kupwara and Qazigund recorded 5.8, 3.7 and 3.8 degrees Celsius minimum temperature respectively, Pahalgam saw a low of minus 0.8 degree Celsius.

Night temperature in Ladakh too continued to remain at sub-zero level. The MeT office said the sky in Srinagar was expected to remain partly cloudy tomorrow with maximum and minimum temperature expected to hover around 20 and 6 degree Celsius respectively. 

Jammu, March 18
Despite a budget of crores of rupees and several Centrally-sponsored schemes, Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, nearly 5,150 habitations in Jammu and Kashmir are without safe drinking water, thereby putting lives of thousands of people at risk, for they are exposed to water-born diseases.

As per government data, there are 14,028 habitations in the state, out of which, only 8,878 have been covered to ensure safe drinking water.

Even the Census 2011 has portrayed a gloomy picture on the drinking water front as it had revealed that only 34 per cent of the total population has access to safe drinking water, with 64 per cent of the total population in the state using tap water for drinking but only 34.7 per cent getting it from treated source. The rest of the population uses water from hand pumps, rivers, canals, ponds and springs.

“Most of the schemes are running behind schedule, mostly because of inefficient handling by officers on the ground. A central audit has also revealed that a vital flagship scheme of the government of India aimed at providing safe drinking water to rural population has been poorly implemented,” said a PHE engineer.

The audit report by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has also revealed that Jammu & Kashmir has reported low (less than 50%) achievement against the targets under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP).

Even Minister for PHE, Irrigation Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma has revealed in the Legislative Assembly that thousands of habitations are still partially covered.

“We are planning to constitute District Water and Sanitation Missions (DWSM) in all the districts of the state and village-level Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC) with NRHM throughout the state soon,” said Sharma.

“Government will ensure drinking water security both in terms of adequacy and quality of water to the people of the state on a sustainable basis,” Sharma said.

Officials said the target is to cover 1,407 new habitations, benefiting a population of 11 lakh by the end of this fiscal. The government has also proposed to install 3350 Mark-II hand pumps at vulnerable locations to meet drinking water requirements.

Srinagar, March 18
A daily-wage worker with the Power Development Department (PDD) was electrocuted while repairing a high-tension electricity supply line in Kulgam district of south Kashmir.

The victim Ghulam Nabi Sofi of Khrew village in Kulgam district, died while performing his duties, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said Sofi was repairing a high-tension electricity supply line at Badroo Dal in Kulgam. when he got electrocuted and died.

Sofi was working as a daily wager in PDD, the spokesman said. The body of the deceased has been handed over to his relatives for last rites. 

Srinagar, March 18
The Central University of Kashmir (CUK), along with 10 other Central Universities in the country, have started the admission process for various postgraduate programmes.

The application forms have been made available both online as well as on the CUK campus in Sonwar, Srinagar.

The various postgraduate courses being offered are BA LLB, MA English, MA Economics, MA/MSc Mathematics, MA Convergent Journalism, MA Urdu, MA Education, MA Tourism Management, MA Politics (International Relations) and MSc Information Technology.

A common entrance test , known as the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET-2013) conducted jointly by the Central Universities of Bihar, Jammu, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kashmir, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Orissa at various centres located across the country would select the candidates.

“Through the application form, the eligible candidates can apply for any of the programmes offered by the above universities. The eligible students can apply for the programmes offered by all the 10 Central Universities and appear in the CUCET in Srinagar. The applicants awaiting final result in the qualifying examination can also apply,” said Arshad Mehraj, CUK spokesperson.

The last date for the sale of offline application forms for the postgraduate programmes is May 20 while the date for deactivation of online application form for postgraduate programmes is May 25.

The last date for the receipt of offline applications form for postgraduate programmes is May 30 and the admit card for PG programmes can be downloaded till June 13.

The online entrance test for BA-LLB has been fixed on May 18 and 19 and offline test is scheduled on May 19. The online test for the postgraduate programmes has been scheduled on June 15 and 16 while offline test has been fixed on June 16. 

Srinagar, March 18
A three-day long national seminar on 'Literature and ethics: Paradigms and practice' began today at the University of Kashmir.

While inaugurating the seminar, Vice-Chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad said the seminar would provide an opportunity to various students, scholars and teachers of English Literature to learn from the rich experiences of the delegates some of whom he said were veterans in the field of research and pedagogy.

In his keynote address, Prof Harish Narang, a noted academician, who is a former Professor of English at Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) and is presently a senior consultant with the South Asia University titled “Creative writing is an ethical question; literature politics and pedagogy.

Prof Narang said, “Every piece of literature is a propaganda and always written with some intension. However, the freedom that a writer enjoys should and is not absolute. It has certain limitations and those limitations need to be respected.”

Department of English head and seminar director Prof Lily Want hoped that the seminar would delve into issues of relationship between authors and his audiences, globalisation and modern ethical philosophy.

During the first day of the workshop, six papers were presented by distinguished academics and scholars. The presented papers include Globalisation and the Consumerist Reading of Literature, Decoding the enigmas of Marital Ethics in Shashi Despande’s Ships that pass; The aesthetic philosophy of Iqbal; Classics and the categorical Imperative.

The function was attended by University of Kashmir Registrar Zaffar A Reshi, Dean Academic Affairs AM Shah, Dean Research, Khursheed Andrabi.

Dr Nusrat Andarbi conducted the proceedings of the workshop while Dr Tasleem Ahmed War presented the vote of thanks on the occasion. 

Srinagar, March 18
While the Valley-based schools and post offices have already remained open on Sundays due to frequent shutdowns and curfews, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) too has decided to keep its customer care centres open on Sundays and other holidays during the current month.

“In the view of prevailing uncertain circumstances, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has decided to keep all its customer care centres open across the Valley for collection of cash/bills on all the coming Sundays as well as the holidays of March for the facilitation of customers,” a statement issued by the BSNL said today.

The BSNL statement said the customers could contact the area divisional engineers or accounts officers in case of any inconvenience.

The post offices in the Valley remained functional during the last two Sundays while several schools too had remained open yesterday. The post offices and schools remained open on Sundays to make up for lost work due to frequent shutdowns and curfews in the aftermath of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru last month. — TNS

Srinagar, March 18
Four people were injured in three road accidents in the Kashmir valley, the police said today. A passenger vehicle collided with a car near a railway track in south Kashmir's Kulgam district resulting in injuries to two people.

Javid Ahmad Dar (25), a resident of Khanabal Anantnag, and Waseem Ahmed Dar (24), a resident of Hanjidantar, were injured in the accident and have been shifted to the District Hospital, Anantnag, for treatment, a police spokesman said.

In another accident in Kulgam district, a van hit a motorcycle at Khudwani resulting in injuries to motorcyclist Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Muniward village of Anantnag district. The injured has been shifted to SKIMS hospital for treatment.

In south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, a woman fell from a motorcycle at Katsoo village resulting in injuries. She was shifted to SKIMS hospital for treatment.

The police has registered cases in all the three accidents, the spokesman said. 

Srinagar, March 18
A house and a cowshed have been damaged in separate incidents of fire in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Fire broke out last night in the house of Wali Mohammad Bhat and Abdul Hamid Bhat at Kuligam village in Kupwara district resulting in partial damage to the house.

However, no loss of life or injury was reported in the incident, a police spokesman said.

In another incident, fire broke out in the cowshed of Showkat Ahmad at Gund Machier village of Kupwara district resulting in damage to roof of the cowshed. However, no loss of life or injury was reported in the incident, the spokesman said, adding that cause of fire was being ascertained.