Jammu, April 5
Despite claims of success in curbing of illegal load by the Power Development Department (PDD), about 7,395 Distribution Transformers (DTs) were damaged in Jammu region during 2012-13. Damages were mainly due to excess load on them beyond their capacity to resist.

The government says the damage rate of transformers in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in the country.

In response to a question by MLA GM Saroori, the government has submitted in the Legislative Assembly that keeping in view the heavy influx of damaged transformer, their repair is also being outsourced to private units as the central workshop established for the purpose in Jammu is unable to repair all of the damaged equipment.

“Damage rate of DT in J&K is the highest in the country due to ruthless and unauthorised use of electric supply by consumers,” the government has responded.

So far, 177 damaged transformers are yet to be replaced, with 30 in Rajouri and 36 in Reasi yet to get replaced with new ones, affecting the population, which is facing acute shortage of electricity.

“Wherever transformers get damaged, the same are replaced at the earliest within available responses. In certain cases, where the DT is extensively damaged or when the distribution station is located at a considerable distance from the road, it takes time to replace them,” says the reply.

Even PDD has admitted that damage rate in Jammu region is 40 per cent during the summer months, with the department facing problem in repairing them due to shortage of spare parts.

A senior officer from PDD said the installed capacity of every transformer is about six times the total agreed load of consumers fed from it with rate of damage of distribution transformers increasing with every passing month.

In 2011-12, 5,972 distribution transformers were damaged across the state, the figure being the highest in the country. The department has two repairing stations, one at Pampore and another at Gladni.

In many areas of the state, there have been line constraints like bank overloading or transmission line overloading, as load growth has been very irregular and consumer cooperation absent, which has further compounded the problem.

“On various occasions, workshops are over-burdened by these damaged transformers and to facilitate their speedy repairs, the department employs the service of registered repairing agencies (private firms) as well,” an official said.

Jammu, April 5
Forum of Lease Holders of Nazool Lands Joint Action Committee has welcomed the concern expressed by the legislators in the state Assembly over loot in the name of conferring ownership rights under Roshni scheme.

A meeting of committee held here today under the chairmanship of Inderjeet Khajuria observed that the term often used for all the occupants of government lands - illegal occupants, is totally wrong.

“Most of the occupants of land brought under the law are genuine and legally allottees of the land for the last 60 to 80 years and even from the times of Dogra rulers in the state,” Khajuria said.

He said they had paid the fixed premium for lands allotted to them, under proper lease and they had also been paying ground rent on the same.

“Treating the genuine lease holders of the lands and encroachers and illegal occupants of lands during the last few decades is totally unjustified. The result has been that the encroachers and illegal occupants have been benefited, by getting the lands regularised in their names with ownership rights, after paying concessional rates as compared to the present value of these lands. It is only these illegal occupants through encroachments, who have come forward to get their lands regularised with ownership rights, while hardly any genuine lease holder of the land has come forward to avail this scheme,” it was stated.

Katra, April 5
Parents whose children study in private schools are feeling the heat due to ‘arbitrary hike’ in school fee every academic year.

A group of parents held a meeting on Friday under the leadership of Amit Sharma, district president, Congress youth wing, to discuss the action plan to put a stop on fee hike.

“Almost all the schools increase their fees every academic year by 10 to 40 per cent. We are planning to stage a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office to take immediate steps to put a stop to this menace,” said Amit Sharma.

The group has decided that parents of children studying in unaided private schools would not pay the hiked fee and other charges to schools and would continue to pay fees and other charges at old rates. Parents also met Chief Education Officer Reasi Tarseem Lal, who assured them appropriate action within three days, Sharma added.

Batote, April 5
Panic gripped the entire Batote town and its surrounding villages after a mysterious bang of an unusual magnitude was heard here this morning.

Following an unprecedentedly loud bang at 8.45 am today, most of the panicked residents came out of their houses and started looking around for the cause of the bang.

The walls and windowpanes of all the houses shook badly and those asleep, especially infants, woke up in panic.

The phones of police station, Police Control Room, hospital, local administrators, reporters, sarpanches etc were flooded with phone calls from anxious residents. Everybody in the police station, military and paramilitary campuses got alert and started patrolling in their vicinity to know the cause.

Many a speculation and rumours were rife over the day. Although officially there was no report of loss of any life or property, there were reports of widening of cracks in many houses.

According to police and Army sources, the crossing of sound barrier speed by a supersonic plane might be the cause of the bang.

Jammu, April 5
Traffic police today banned parking of two and four wheelers at the historic Raghunath Bazaar from 8 am to 11.30 am to prevent unauthorised parking during morning hours.

There has been a constant demand for action against people illegally using the roadsides as parking.

In absence of proper parking norms and designated parking areas, the busy markets and vital roads of the city remain choc-a-block owing to haphazard parking of vehicles, which affects flow of customers.

Though the High Court has banned parking of vehicles in Raghunath Bazaar, the directive is being flouted with impunity. Haphazard parking of vehicles has reduced the available road width to half, subjecting pedestrians and motorists to great hardship.

“It is a trouble walking along the road in the market, as people park their vehicles along the narrow roads and bylanes, causing confusion to customers. Shopkeepers are losing customers,” said Baldev Khullar, president of Raghunath Bazaar Business Association (RBBA).

As for parking of vehicles in Raghunath Bazaar, Khullar said the market association had agreed to allow customers to park their vehicles in front of their shops after paying some amount and the shopkeepers had to park their vehicles elsewhere.

In other parts of the city too, motorists park their vehicles along roads, causing congestion.

The authorities seem to have turned a blind to the growing congestion on the city roads. People park vehicles wherever they find space, but the administration couldn’t care less.

Jammu, April 5
The government said de-silting of Ranbir Canal had been completed by the Irrigation Department.

This was stated by Minister for Public Health Engineering and Flood Control, while replying to a Calling Attention Notice by BR Kundal.

He said de-silting work on various distributaries of the Canal, in RS Pura tehsil, had been taken up to provide irrigation water up to tail end of the canal network.

Kundal said the work, being of urgent nature, had to be carried out in a time-bound manner to facilitate early release of water in the canal system. Sharma further said the disposal of muck from the process, as per the site requirement, was in progress and would be disposed soon as priority was being given to the habituated area. — OC

Jammu, April 5
Displaced Kashmiri Pandits have threatened they would hand over keys of their two-room tenements at Jagti to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, against alleged harassment by the state government, which has warned it would suspend their power connection if they do not sign the agreement with Power Development Department (PDD).

Migrants presently putting up at Jagti, Muthi and Purkhoo held a demonstration against the government and alleged they were being mentally harassed by the officials and were being forced to pay excess electricity bills.

“We do not oppose action against people who are misusing electricity, but we are displaced from Kashmir valley and many of the people are unable to pay the electricity charges, because they cannot afford,” said Shadi Lal Pandita, president, Jagti Tenement Committee (JTC).

“The Centre, through a relief organisation, has been bearing the burden of electricity charges, but we are being forced to pay the power charges,” said AK Dhar, who lives in Buta Nagar camp.

Katra, April 5
There was a time in Mahore when girls left school because of militancy in the region, but this year, Jamila Akhtar and Yasmin Bano quit school for a different reason. They left school because their families could not afford their education. Both the girls are resident of Chaklas village in Mahore and were studying in Government Primary School, Lelna.

Villager Mushtaq Ahmed said both the girls were extremely intelligent and had a bright future. However, since both of them were from poor families, their parents could not afford the costs of books, stationary and uniform. As a result, they left their school in January.

Commander of Rashtriya Rifles Sector at Mahore came to know about the girls and asked the headmaster of their school to re-admit both of them and sponsored their further studies. The Rashtriya Rifles Battalion, located at Sarh, has now taken up the responsibility of sponsoring the school fees, books, stationary and uniform for their entire career, till they finish their studies. On Friday morning, both Jamila Akhtar and Yasmin Bano rejoined their school.

The Army has played a major role in this region to ensure education for students. A number of students have been sponsored for studies in the Army Public School, Beas and Army Public School, Rajouri, which have paid rich dividends.

In the late nineties, the militants had burnt most of the schools in the region. A major drive was undertaken by the Army, under operation Sadhavana, to rebuild these schools and provide them infrastructure. 

Jammu, April 5
Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) has started a signature campaign among the different Muslim sects to promote national integration from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

The national convenor of the manch, Muhammad Afzal, criticised the political parties and some sections of the media for sowing “hate seeds” among the nationalist people of the state.

He said religion had nothing to do with terrorism and those who were trying to link terrorism with violence were the real enemies of the country.

He said the Manch had started the campaign among the muslim sects to promote brotherhood, security, integrity and prosperity of India and fixed the target of reaching out to 5 lakh people, which had exceeded to 7.5 lakh, incuding 43,000 persons from Jammu and Kashmir. 

Jammu, April 5
Jammu and Kashmir Principal Accountant General SC Pandey today said the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had covered major flaws and achievements of government departments.

Addressing a press conference, Pandey said the report deals with the audit findings of performance audit, chief controlling officer-based audit of a government department and transaction audit paragraph of social, general, revenue and economic sectors.

Pandey said the report containing audit findings of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in J&K is also being presented separately this year.

Pandey said the primary purpose of the report is to bring to the notice of the state legislature the important results of the audit.

Jammu, April 5
Minister for Higher Education Mohammad Akbar Lone said the remaining construction work on the Poonch campus of University of Jammu (JU) would be started this year.

He added that he would personally visit the campus site to take on-the-spot appraisal of activities to be carried out.

Earlier, replying to the discussion regarding the delay in start of the construction work on the campus, Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Ajaz Ahmad Khan informed the House that the Poonch campus of the University of Jammu was established in the year 2008 vide 67th University Council Resolution held on February 25, 2008.

He said the campus was presently functioning in the Government Degree College, Poonch. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had approved Rs 1,469.72 lakh for infrastructure development of the campus, out of which 50 per cent of the sanctioned grant had been released during the financial year 2011-12.

Batote, April 5
A Veterans’ Rally-cum-Fauji Mela was organised by the Army under the aegis of Counter- Insurgency Force (Delta) at Doda stadium, today. Its aim was to alleviate the problems of Ex-Servicemen and “Veer Naris” of Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts through necessary assistance.

After inaugurating the Mela, Lt Gen DS Hooda, General Officer Commanding, White Knight Corps, during his speech, complimented the veterans on their yeoman’s service to the nation and exhorted them to continue it for their society and nation.

The “Veer Naris” - wives of martyred and gallant soldiers, were felicitated by General Hooda with cash and mementoes.

Among them was the wife of martyr Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, Ashok Chakra (posthumous), Vir Chakra, Sena Medal and who has his name in the Limca Book of Records as the “Most Decorated Soldier” of the Army.

Several informative and games stalls were put up for the public. The Zila Sainik Welfare Officer noted the problems of the veterans and veer naris. — TNS

Jammu, April 5
More than 15,000 violators have been booked in Jammu and Kashmir for having tinted glasses and black film on their vehicle windows, the state government said today.

“More than 15,000 violators have been booked for having tinted glasses and black film on their vehicles,” Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo told the Legislative Council today.

In a written reply to a query by PDP MLC Syed Asgar Ali, the minister said as per the orders of the Supreme Court, a drive has been launched against tinted car windows in the state.

Kichloo added that steps were being taken to curb cases of rash and negligent driving, overloading and speeding by habitual offenders with the government moving to cancel the driving licences of erring drivers, especially those of private vehicles.

Besides, a system has been introduced to register criminal cases under sections 304 and 307 of the Ranbir Penal Code against drivers hauled up for repeated overloading, the minister said. — PTI

Batote, April 5
Two persons died on the spot and one person was injured when a mini truck (Mohindra-207) they were travelling in, rolled down 300 feet from the under-construction Baghlihar Power House-Shamthi link road into the Chuchhattar nullah at Chakka in Rajgarh area of Doda district this afternoon.

According to sources, a forest guard, Rajinder Singh, 37, of Hillar, Rajgarh and Nadir Ahmed, 38, of Chuchhattar, Rajgarh, died on the spot.

The driver of the vehicle, Shamsudin, 34, of Pogal, Banihal, was referred to Government Medical College, Hospital, Jammu, from the District Hospital, Ramban.