Jammu, April 11
Heavy rush of devotees witnessed at the famous Bawawali Mata temple, Bagh-e-Bahu, today on the occasion of the first Navratra. Devotees began reaching the temple from midnight for early darshan of Goddess Kali.

The temple was decorated for the Navaratra festival with psychedelic lights. There were long serpent queues of devotees who came to pay obeisance.

The administration managed to control the crowds and provided other facilities to avoid any mishap.

Traffic police was also deployed at the Bahu Fort for smooth movement of vehicles. Private parking facility was also made available for the devotees. Temporary stalls were set up by the roadside, near the temple selling traditional goods for the festival such as diyas, coconuts and dupattas, wrist-bands and special garlands made of marigold and other. 

Rajouri, April 11
Hundreds of Bathoni village residents today stopped Forest Minister Mia Altaf’s convoy for half hour this morning on the outskirt of Rajouri to protest scarcity of potable drinking water faced by them for past year and a half. The minister was on a visit to Rajouri to inaugurate a forest department building at Rajouri.

The villagers blocked the main road and lodged a massive protest against the Department of Public Health Engineering and the district administration for their alleged casual approach in providing drinking water in the area.

Bathoni Sarpanch Balbir said, “For past 18 months, this part of the district is facing severe water shortage and people have to travel miles for potable drinking water. Even though the village has two water tanks, still no water connections have been alloted owing to the monopoly of two senior ranking officers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department, Rajouri, at the post of JE and AEE, which has resulted in the water crisis,” Balbir added.

Rajouri, April 9
Despite the ban on the sale of gutkha products in the state, the authorities have failed to implement it in border district Rajouri. In compliance of the court orders, state Food Safety Commissioner recently ordered a ban on manufacture, storage, sale, transportation, display or distribution of Gutkha in the state.

Vendors selling the banned tobacco products in the city said various brands of gutkha were being procured from the neighbouring cities.

Reports said shopkeepers, too, were involved in black-marketing of the banned material as they were selling it on higher rates. “A pouch of Rs 2 is being sold at Rs 5,” said a resident. The law-enforcement agencies have failed to take concrete measures to tighten the noose over the violators. In the absence of any check, the sale of such products is an easy affair for shopkeepers.

A few days ago, the district administration constituted various teams for the city and launched a drive against the illegal sale of gutkha and plastic bags. “They seized a few kg of such products but it was just a tip of the iceberg,” said a local resident.

Addition District Development Commissioner, Rajouri, Matloob Khan said, “Despite the ban, such products are being openly sold. The administration has instructed tehsildars and SHOs to take stern action against those found guilty in this regard.”

Poonch, April 11
To have an on-the-spot assessment of the restoration process of the 132-KV transmission line and to address problems of residents of Poonch district, Minister of State for Power and CAPD Vikar Rasool held a series of meetings with representatives of political parties and prominent citizens in Mandi and Poonch today.

These meetings were attended by Haveli MLA Ajaz Jan, District Development Commissioner Anwar Hussain Shah, Poonch SP Shamsheer Hussain, chief engineers of different wings of the Power Development Department and other senior district officers.

Representatives of various political parties and senior citizens spoke on the occasion and put forth people’s demands and urged that the grievances be redressed at the earliest. The main demands which came up during the discussion were early restoration of the 132-KV transmission line, which suffered damages on the night of January 17 due to heavy snowfall and compensation to businessmen for their losses due to power failure. Action was also demanded against those responsible for using poor quality material in the 132-KV line, which caused a huge loss to the government exchequer.

Political representatives also highlighted issues such as the payment dues to labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, poor condition of roads, unavailability of regular water supply and shortage of ration and kerosene oil.

The minister assured speedy redressal of the genuine problems and asked district administration officials to work with dedication for the welfare of the people.

He said Rs 6.5 crore had been released for the restoration of the 132-KV transmission line and that the process was in full swing. He said the transmission line would be restored by April 21.

He directed the executing agencies to complete the restoration process within the stipulated time as it would solve various problems of people. The BJP, Poonch, unit has criticised the district administration for not inviting them to the review meeting. 

Batote, April 11
The police rescued 45 bovines being smuggled to the Kashmir valley and detained six smugglers and impounded three trucks in Ramban and Udhampur districts during last two days.

Shakir Hussain, a driver from Lower Munda, Quazigund, was detained by the police at a Naka in Nagbal, Banihal. As many as 18 bovines were seized from his Kashmir bound truck (No. JK02AD-5245). The truck was impounded.

In another incident 24 bovines were rescued by the police from the four smugglers at Tikri in Udhampur yesterday.

The accused Abdul Rashid Gujjar of Kansipatta Reasi, Hussian Din Gujjar of Gangyal, Jammu, Mohd Rafiq of Nagrota Khanpur and Mohd Fareed Gujjar of Maitra, Ramban were detained and two bovine loaded trucks (No JK02Q-0586 and JK02AG-6587) were seized.

Two bovine smugglers were arrested by the Udhampur police and three bovines rescued on Monday. All the accused were booked under Sections 188 RPC and 3 PCA Act at Banihal, Ramban and Rehmbal, Udhampur.

Jammu, April 11
Coming from a true Gandhian family, Zahida Khan, a Muslim Kashmir Administrative Services woman officer from Jammu region sees education of girls as the only key to women empowerment.

She superannuated this March after rendering 29 years of unblemished service in various departments. In her words, "Female of the human race is more intelligent and mentally strong than the male" and "behind every successful woman, there is a man. He is a father, a brother and a husband."

Daughter of a true Gandhian leader Mohammed Ayub Khan, who remained a state cabinet minister for two decades, and Razia Begum, Zahida, who epitomizes women empowerment in conservative and militancy-plagued state, candidly attributes her success to her parents, particularly her father and then her husband Qamar Din Khan, a former Revenue department official, who also retired as deputy commissioner.

"My father, a leader of the poor masses, who also remained the Deputy Speaker of the J&K Legislative Assembly, Congress MP and J&K Pradesh Congress chief in his political career spanning 56 years till he passed away in 2007, had inculcated Gandhian values among his three daughters and a son, which helped us immensely in our lives," says Zahida.

Hailing from Banihal in Ramban, Zahida did her early schooling from Mallinson Girls' School in Srinagar and Jammu before graduating in arts from the Government College for Women at Parade Ground in 1976.

Later, she did her post graduation in English literature from the University of Jammu before getting married to Qamar Din Khan in 1978 at the age of 21.

"It was after my wedding that I did my graduation and master's degrees in education and I was blessed with a child when I had appeared in the KAS written exams in 1982," she recalls.

"I qualified it in my first attempt in 1984 and became the first Muslim woman from Jammu region to crack the elite exams," she adds.

Thereafter, Zahida never looked back and carved a niche for herself wherever she was posted.

During her 29 years of service she had the opportunity to work with some top and senior bureaucrats. She worked in the fields of higher education, planning, revenue, health, school education, J&K special tribunal, industries and handicrafts departments before her last assignment of as the Deputy Commissioner of Kathua.

Zahida, as the District Magistrate of Kathua, was highly appreciated in the bureaucratic circles for wisely and subtly tackling BJP's Ekta Yatra in January 2011, which had the BJP heavyweights like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Anath Kumar and Anurag Thakur come with a thousand workers. She sees progress of the society and country in empowering fair gender.

“The key to social growth lies in education for the girl child. Tell your daughters and sisters to keep dreaming and strive hard to turn their dreams into reality. Mentally a woman is far stronger than a man but behind every successful woman I see a man, who is a father, a husband and a brother," says Zahida. She wants to serve the society.

Poonch, April 11
In connection with Chaitra Choudush, thousands of devotees took holy dip in the Ramkund, Sita and Lakshman Kunds in the historic Ramkund Temple in Mendher tehsil of Poonch which concluded yesterday. Devotees take a dip in the three Kunds every year on the eve of Chaitra Choudush.

Ramkund Temple is one of the most ancient and important religious sites in Poonch. At a distance of 42 km from Poonch, the temple is located at Narol village on the Poonch- Mendhar road. As per the archeological survey, this ancient temple was built by King Lalitaditya during 724 to 761 AD. While local residents believe that the temple was originally built by Lord Ram himself on his way to Kashmir and it was later renovated by Lalitaditya. There are three beautiful springs around the temple and they are known by the names of Ram Kund, Lakshman Kund and Sita Kund.

Special Havan yagya was also organised on the occasion and stalls were also set up by social and religious organisations.

Zafar Ullah, a prominent leader of Mendhar said, “Over the past 20 years of militancy in Mendhar tehsil Militants tried to demolish this shrine several times but failed. Now, it has become a symbol of love, brotherhood and communal harmony.”

Amit Bhasin, SDPO, Mendhar, said, “The way local residents gather here to celebrate Chaitra Choudush annual fair is admirable.

Elaborate security arrangements were also made on the occasion.

Batote, April 11
Long, unscheduled power cuts have become an order of the day for the residents of Batote, Patnitop, Sanasar, Nashri and the surrounding panchayats. Sources in the Power Development Department (PDD) said the reason was that the receiving station at Dharmoond in Batote was still making use of worn-out equipment.

The power supply in this entire area remained disrupted for six hours on April 3 and April 7. Sources said the power failure on both the days was due to some technical problem in one of the breakers (power controlling unit) of the receiving station.

“Every time such a snag occurs in the receiving station, it is rectified by removing the accumulated Carbon layer and cleaning it. However, the frequency of the problem is increasing,” said a source.

“The breakers and other parts have not been replaced by the fund-starved Power Development Department ever since the Dharmoond receiving station was established, which was decades ago. For how long can such old equipment last? So not only the public has to suffer inconvenience, staff members, too, have face the wrath of the irate public,” said one of the senior engineers on the condition of anonymity.

Jammu, April 11
Kawa Institute launched preparatory classes for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET). MS Katoch, chairman of the group, while briefing the media today said the institute would start preparatory classes for students who wish to pursue career in the field of teaching at the school level.

Katoch said the Government of India has made qualification of the TET mandatory for new recruits in the teaching profession in order to ensure better quality of education in schools. The government has started the CTET, a test conducted by the CBSE, he added.

He said the Kawa College of Education has decided to start the preparatory classes for the CTET programme for the upcoming examination. He added that the institute would expand its network to different districts of the state and also at the national level.

The chairman said in the first phase, the institute would open 100 centres in the northern parts of the country. The whole process will be divided into four phases and it will have 600 centres throughout the country.

He said in order to provide quality material and training for the CTET, the institute has tied up with reputed academicians at the national level who have vast experience in the field of Education.

Prof (Dr) NS Gupta, adviser, Kawa Group, said quality education was the need of the hour. Abhimanyu Katoch, Dr Anita Bali, Anjana Bavouria, Richa Dubey, Talwinder Kour, Radhika Jamwal, Sukhwinder Kour and Madhu were also present on the occasion.

Jammu, April 11
Liberty, India’s leading footwear brand, today set up its stores in Jammu and Katra respectively. The opening of the showrooms is a part of Liberty’s expansion plan for the year 2013 with an aim to cater to the fashion demand of its customers. Liberty already has two exclusive showrooms in Srinagar and Udhampur.

Surjit Singh Slathia, former minister, inaugurated the showroom in Jammu today. The showroom in Katra will be inaugurated tomorrow by Jugal Kishore, former minister and member, Legislative Council.

Anupam Bansal, executive director, Liberty, said, “J&K is our focus area and we would like to open more such stores in the state. When it comes to durable and comfortable shoes, people prefer to choose Liberty. Katra is a religious place which witnesses a huge rush of tourists everyday”.

The Liberty exclusive showrooms in old Janipur in Jammu and on Panthal Road, near Hotel Jai Maa Inn, Katra, are spread over 750 square feet each. These showrooms will offer an array of collection for all the age groups and change the style statement of its customers in the region. The showrooms will feature around 500 exciting and stylish designs to choose from. The men’s collection starts from a price range of Rs 199 to Rs 2699, women’s from Rs 199 to Rs 1099 and the kid’s range starts from Rs 150 to Rs 650.

Jammu, April 11
Neva Garments Limited today opened its retail showroom M/s Dogra Exclusive at the Airport Road, Upper Gadigarh, here. Vishal Jain, executive director, CEO, of the Neva Garments Limited, inaugurated the showroom which has a complete summer, lingerie and thermal wear collection catering to the men, women and kids.

Jain said, “Neva now plans to foray into EBO’S in different cities. After initial response from the factory outlet in Ludhiana, now Neva is venturing into other cities of Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and UP. Neva is entering into retail showroom by either self-managed or franchise model. Also it has plans to open 10 to 15 new stores before winter in tier-two cities. Stores would be opened on hi-streets with good footfalls and near to the residential population”.

“We want our customer to have our product available at stone’s-throw distance from their homes. We are catering to the basic necessity of leisure, comfort, active, clothing for life. Right from the beginning, Neva has had a policy to provide innovative products to our consumers,” he added.

Jammu, April 11
Despite directions of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) for the inclusion of more sports in the National School Games, there was no check on participation of players in relatively lesser popular sports disciplines in the recently concluded annual event.

Earlier, there were reports that sports departments of states across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, were creating unrecognised associations by individuals with ulterior motives. It was being said that the departments were using their influence to get these associations affiliated with the apex sports body. Following this, the SGFI had introduced strict laws to keep a check on such activities.

An SGFI sub-committee under the chairmanship of its secretary general Dr Rajesh Kumar Mishra held a meeting at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex in Pune to formulate a strategy. It was decided that the popular sports of India which were in the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian School Sports Federation and World School Games would be considered as regular games of the SGFI.

Sources said in the recently concluded 58th National School Games held at various venues across the country in different disciplines, the state contingent has managed to bag a decent haul of medals but they mostly came in new disciplines.

Sources said the Department of Youth Services and Sports (DYSS) had conducted competitions at the district, state and division levels only in major disciplines such as kho-kho, kabaddi, football, fencing, badminton, swimming, table tennis, judo, volleyball, basketball and athletics. The motive behind it was to select players on the basis of their performance but in order to provide strength to the contingent, some average players were also selected for new disciplines.

“Unfortunately, the poor performance of the state contingent in the earlier editions of competitions is to be blamed for opportunities to individuals with ulterior motives for constituting a new association and then getting it affiliated with the SGFI. In fact, we were hoping that it will not happen again in this edition but that is not the case,” a sources in the DYSS said.

Meanwhile, Ashok Kumar, vice-president of the SGFI, told The Tribune, “The new terms and conditions introduced by the SGFI will definitely help in curbing this practice. But we are hopeful that the state contingent will be able to give a much improved performance in major disciplines in the next edition of the prestigious sporting event,” he said.

Jammu, April 11
A two-day media briefing/workshop on the topic “Understanding Environmental Issues for Better Reportage” for local journalists of the twin Ladakh districts was organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi, in collaboration with the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO) at Munshi House, Leh Palace, Ladakh.

The workshop started with the introductory session during which Monisha Ahmed, executive director, LAMO, Suparno Banerjee, programme director, Media CSE, Delhi, and Papia Samajdar, gave a brief introduction of the CSE, its philosophy, works, milestone and its media work.

On the opening day, Richard Mahapatra, senior Editor, Down to Earth Magazine, and Superno Banerjee, talked about the media and environment. They gave a detailed presentation of various issues arising nowadays in society (at the local as well as global level).

Mahapatra talked about reporting on the environment, its trends, observations, linkages of news, how local news was linked with global news as well as global news with local.

Jammu, April 11
Akhil Bharatiya Marwari Yuva Manch will organise camps to provide artificial limbs to handicapped persons of the Jammu region in June this year. The information was given in an announcement made by the Manch here today.

Addressing a press conference, national president of the Manch, Lalit Gandhi, said they had fixed a target to provide artificial limbs to as many as 1,000 persons in five camps during June. He said the Manch has 700 branches in 20 states of the country. These branches regularly organise such camps. He said the Manch has so far provided artificial limbs to as many as 87,000 persons.

He further informed that their group was also going to start a massive awareness camp in Jammu and Kashmir in September regarding cancer. 

Rajouri, April 11
Vikas Gupta alias Nishu Gupta has been appointed new district president of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) for the Rajouri district. He was welcomed by the party leaders and workers in a programme held here today.

The BJP state vice-president, Vibodh Gupta, along with the district party president, Bharat Bushan Vaid, and other senior leaders welcomed Vikas Gupta on his appointment as the district president of the youth wing.

Addressing the programme Vibodh said Vikas was working for the uplift of youth in the area and his induction as the BJYM district president will strengthen the party in the district.

In his speech, the newly appointed president thanked the leaders for keeping faith in him and appointing him as a district head. Vikas criticised the state coalition government for its new recruitment policy which he termed as anti-youth. He said instead of relying on weak government jobs, youth of the border Rajouri district should start small scale businesses on the Mughal road which has a positive scope. Vikas also assured to work for the cause of youth and redressal of their problems.

Katra, April 11
National Cricket Club on Thursday lifted the T20 Cricket Tournament trophy beating Katra Cricket Club with a huge margin. The week-long Amit Memorial Cricket T20 tournament was organised by the Amit memorial cricket club Reasi, which concluded 
on Thursday.

Earlier, batting first after winning the toss, the National Cricket Club set a target of 179 runs for the loss of eight wickets in stipulated 20 overs. Salman scored 43 runs and remained the top scorer while Jagmohan contributed 32 runs to the total.

For Katra Cricket Club, Raju was most successful bowler with three wickets while Munna and Sanjay Sharma caught two wickets each.

Katra Cricket Club failed to chase the target and only managed 145 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs and thus losing the match by 33 runs. Atul played a fine innings of 38 runs for his team.

For the National Cricket Club, Dev Singh took three wickets followed by Sanjay who took two and Rockey who clinched one wicket.

For his all round performance Nikhil Dev Singh was adjudged the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series.

Ambrish Magotra, former chairman, Katra Municipality Committee, who was the chief guest at the final match, gave away cash prize of Rs 11,000 to the winning team and Rs 5,000 to the runners up.

Jammu, April 11
Khalsa Cricket Club (KCC) notched up win over Sunderbani Cricket Club (SCC) by 14 runs in an exciting match in the ongoing Tawi Premier League T20 Cricket Tournament. The tournament is being organised by the Tawi Organising Committee in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) at the Sports Stadium, Kathua.

The KCC elected to bat first after winning the toss and scored 128 runs for the loss of eight wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Pritpal played a fine knock of 46 runs studded with four boundaries, while Harinder also contributed 32 runs, including three boundaries and one mighty heave for the maximum. Satwant also made quick fire 22 runs, including one boundary.

For the SCC, Shanker and Sudershan shared two wickets each. In reply, the SCC could manage only 114 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted quota of overs. Jasvir was the top scorer with 57 runs which included seven boundaries, while Asif and Rohit also contributed 12 runs each.

For the KCC, Harinder picked up a three-wicket haul conceding 15 runs in his spell of three overs and was declared man of the match. Amrit Pal took two wickets. — TNS