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Searing heat, power pangs make life hell for Jammu residents
Hand-held ‘pankha’ an old faithful
Jammuites look for alternate weekend getaways
Reasi residents protest against power cuts
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Contractors protest, seek early release of ‘work done’ claims
JMC’s stray cattle drive a flop show
ICAI’s Jammu-Srinagar chapter elects office-bearers
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Searing heat, power pangs make life hell for Jammu residents
Jammu, June 22 Unscheduled power cuts have affected daily life in the winter capital and southern districts of J&K, which are facing onslaught of sweltering summer heat. Locals are circulating jokes saying the coalition government has left the people at the mercy of the Sun god as punishment for paying more revenue to the state exchequer. According to data, the peak demand for power in Jammu and Kashmir is 2,600 MW, but the state is able to supply only 1,817 MW power. The shortfall thus comes to around 783 MW. The power demand in the Jammu region during the peak hours in summer is around 1,400 to 1,500 MW, while the region is being supplied only 800 MW, despite the fact that nearly 10 million pilgrims visit the holy town of Katra through Jammu and have had to face innumerable problems. As far as Kashmir is concerned, with its cool summer months, peak demand is 1,200 MW while the supply fluctuates between 600 MW and 700 MW. The demand in Kashmir reaches up to 1,800 MW during the winter months. “Frequent and extended unscheduled power cuts during peak summer has pushed us into perpetual darkness. Why does Jammu not have a gas turbine to meet the demand during summer? It is not only frustrating, but also one feels angry with our politicians who are more interested in the situation in Pakistan than what is happening to the common man in J&K,” said Akhil Sharma, a university student. The state has been facing an average of 30 per cent gap between demand and supply since 2004-05. People are feeling more irritated as the PDD's frequent upward revision of the cost of electricity has not only strained the domestic budget, but also there is no improvement in supply. “Cuts are due to damage to our equipment because of heat. We are trying our best to maintain supply. Additional power is being brought from the northern grid,” said Chief Engineer, PDD, Sehnaz Goni. At the onset of summer, Power Minister Rasool had claimed that adequate supply will be maintained in the winter capital, but those assurances have remained lip-service in the official briefing of meetings. Though the department is putting the blame on excessive load of air conditioners and undisclosed load, which, according to them, has put huge burden on the grid stations, going by the statistics, the state has not been able to plan any alternative mechanism to deal with the shortage of electricity. |
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Hand-held ‘pankha’ an old faithful
Jammu, June 22 People across the city are suffering, even in metered localities, as power supply remains paralysed for hours. While the Power Development Department (PDD) puts the blame on excessive burden on grid stations triggered by unregistered load, which is leading to further tripping of transformers, it has failed to ensure regular power supply in areas which are paying rent regularly. Across Jammu, a large number of people have been literally sleepless during the past two days, as they have been facing not only frequent cuts, but also long stretches of power shutdown. Residential localities like Paloura, Gandhi Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Channi, Parade, Kachi Chawni, Janipur, Roop Nagar and Bari-Brahman, are worst affected. “The cuts affect normal life and the traditional hand-held fan or “pankha” is a good option. Every family member has one for himself,” said college student Roshni Sharma. Several traders are making good sales of these traditional
devices which had, in some ways, almost lost their relevance because of cooling gadgets like fans, coolers and air conditioners. “People are demanding them and business is brisk. We import them from Rajasthan and Haryana. Some of them are quite fancy in looks,” said Kamlesh Sharma. Despite tall claims by the Chief Minister about pumping more electricity units into the region, people have been deprived of regular power supply for the last over two months. |
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Jammuites look for alternate weekend getaways
Jammu, June 22 Residents of Jammu city, especially businessmen and shopkeepers’ community, usually go to Patnitop and Sanasar to enjoy weekends, as the market in Jammu is closed on Sunday. Rohit Gupta of Pratap Shoes said, “Earlier, Patnitop and Sanasar was the first destination for our weekend holiday during winters, but regular power cuts in the state and bad condition of the road to Patnitop forced us to go out of the state.” “As my children have summer vacations and my shop will be closed on Sunday, we have planned to go to Dharamsala. There’s no doubt that Patnitop is a good hill station, but who will guarantee power supply, phone, roads and other things there?” he added. Patnitop is 112 km from here. Summers in Patnitop are mild and inviting and winters are very
cold. Patnitop has a maximum temperature of around 35 Degree Celsius and the minimum temperature may plummet to below 10 Degree Celsius during the night. The hide-and-seek power supply has been playing with Jammu residents has made it difficult for the city’s people to do their jobs in the scorching heat with 40 degree C temperature accompanied by humidity of above 60 per cent. Bafar Shah, an owner of a readymade garments shop, said, “My daughter is studying in Chandigarh. She refused to come to Jammu during the vacations, the reason being the erratic power supply here.” In the scorching heat in Jammu, Patnitop and Sanasar are supposed to be prime destinations for Jammu residents, but as the administration failed to provide basic amenities to the city’s residents, they do not expect anything in areas like Patnitop and Sanasar. Kapil Gupta, owner of a hardware shop at Vinayak Bazar, said, "Since it is an off tomorrow, I am planning to take my family to Dalhousie for a day or so. The heat in Jammu is unbearable; going to a calm and serene place like Dalhousie is a better option.” “Patnitop is lacking in basic amenities nowadays and no development work is being undertaken by the authorities. It has become a victim of official apathy as well as the public’s indifference,” he added. |
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Reasi residents protest against power cuts
Katra, June 22 Dozens of protesters took to the roads and raised slogans against the state government for long and unscheduled power cuts much to the inconvenience of the people during the peaking summers. The protesters were led by former ward member Sudesh Puri. The protesters were demanding repairs of damaged transformer and uninterrupted supply of electricity, “We pay bills on regular basis and still we are being deprived of electricity,” the protesters said. Addressing the protesters, Puri alleged that the electricity bills of bureaucrats were pending for several years, but they still enjoy 24-hour special power supply, while on the contrary, innocent people who were paying regular bills were deprived of electricity. He said the people were spending sleepless nights due to long power cuts during the night hours, adding that authorities have failed to solve any problem. He said the administration must look into the matter seriously and provide everything possible to solve the problems of residents. He said it was not just this area, but the whole Reasi district was facing the problem of power cuts. Meanwhile, the activists submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhry regarding the shortage of electricity and unscheduled power cuts. The Deputy Commissioner assured that every possible effort would be made to solve the grievances of the people. |
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Official apathy written all over Bhatyari fire station
Bhatyari (Bishnah), June 22 The fire station is running from a semi-constructed private house for the past three years and it operates with a single fire tender which caters to the needs of many villages in Bishnah tehsil. There are at least 10 firemen posted at the station and they act swiftly, as and when, they get a call on a single landline number. During the monsoons or at the time of paddy sowing, they face the problem of parking the fire tender in the area as they don’t have enough parking space. The station still lacks basic equipments and field personnel are not provided with necessary fire-resistant suits, masks or portable oxygen cylinders to deal with any man-made or natural calamity. “The fire station was made functional in this private building about three years back, but the building still lacks some facilities which are generally available in a permanent office. We do face some difficulties in our day-to-day duties, but a major cause of concern is the non-availability of second fire tender which is the need of the hour,” said one of the field personnel posted at the fire station, Bhatyari, wishing anonymity. He said they had created a temporary parking space for fire tender adjacent to the building, but they face problem in parking the vehicle during the sowing season as the locals don’t allow them to park the fire tender there. “During the harvesting of wheat crop this year, we got hundreds of phone calls regarding fire incidents. Sometimes, there were two to three fire incidents at one point of time. As we were unable to douse fire at all places, we forced to call fire tenders and manpower from other fire stations which resulted into huge loss to public property,” he said. Sources said the state government had formulated a proposal for 86 new fire-fighting stations eight years ago, but it had been gathering dust in administrative corridors as the Home Department had failed to make any headway on the project. At the moment, there are only 170 fire stations, including 41 in Jammu and 129 in Kashmir province. For the population of nearly 60 lakh who inhabit the 10 districts of Jammu region, there are only 70 fire tenders, while Kashmir has around 100 fire tenders. Sources said each new fire station involves expenditure of Rs 1.3 crore and an additional staff of 26 personnel. Bishnah MLA Ashwani Sharma said they had been facing the problem of land acquisition in shifting the fire station to a permanent building. “I have already taken up the matter for the upgrade of the fire station with authorities concerned, but identification and acquisition of the land has become the major hurdle in the process. Given the large size of the area and population, I have also demanded for opening of another fire station in the centre of Bishnah town.” RS Sodhi, director, Fire Services, Jammu, when contacted said the fire station had been made operational through internal arrangement. “We made the fire station operational on the request of a local MLA and whatever we could do to make it operational through internal arrangement, we took all measures. As and when we get sanction for its upgrade, we will do accordingly. The station is yet to be regularised,” Sodhi said. fact file
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Day 2: Pen-down strike paralyses work at govt departments
Jammu, June 22 The JCC has observed the pen down strike against the state government for not fulfilling their demands. There was a complete shutdown in all government offices today. The JCC will announce their further course of action on Monday in a meeting of members of the JCC. Senior leader of the JCC Kulwant Singh said, “The employees of all state government departments observed a complete shutdown today under the banner of the JCC and some demonstration also took place.” “The future course of action will be decided on Monday. We have submitted a memorandum to the Divisional Commissioner yesterday and will continue our agitation till the government do not fulfil our demands,” he added. The general public also suffered due to the strike, as the all non-gazetted staff was not unavailable during the office hours. The JCC leader informed, "The government has failed to fulfil its commitment and assurances given to the employees in July last year. We gave them time to address our grievances, but there was no response from them.” The JCC had different demonstrations in the city as well as other districts of the Jammu region, but no violation or arrest has been reported so far. The employees are demanding the regularisation of daily wagers and contractual employees of PSU’s, enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years and removal of grade anomalies of PSU’s. The 4.5 lakh government employees in both Jammu and Kashmir regions observed a complete shutdown under the banner of Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), demanding that their demands should be addressed as soon as possible. |
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Contractors protest, seek early release of ‘work done’ claims
Jammu, June 22 Hundreds of contractors led by the chairman of the committee Gulam Jeelani Purza raised slogans against the state government and criticised it for not releasing the ‘work done’ claims of the contractors which had now reached up to Rs 700 crore. Sham Singh, vice-chairman, JKCCC, and Vinod Kohli of JKCCC appreciated the spirit behind the introduction of the new civil accounting system but criticised the way it had been introduced without “doing home work” and involving the stakeholders. Balvinder Singh, general secretary of the committee, demanded one-time exemption for all the works executed before the financial year 2012-2013 and implementation of the new civil accounting system of accounting when it comes to all the work being executed in the current financial year. He said some contractors had taken loan both from financial institutions and from private persons on hefty interest rates and with the delay in the release of their payments by the government, they had been suffering huge financial loss as interest. The speakers urged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that no further works should be put to tenders without arranging funds in advance; till old ‘work done’ claims of the contractors are released. |
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Baba Jitto Mela gets underway
Katra, June 22 Complimenting people of the area and pilgrims from across the country, the DDC said such type of festivals provide an opportunity for all of us to see the rich culture and traditions of the area, which further help in strengthening the bond of brotherhood and communal amenity. The DDC said efforts would be made to add more attractions in this historic mela in the near future so as to make it a popular and vibrant event. A Dogri play 'Baba Jitto' by famous Natrang Theatre Group, traditional dangal by the J&K Indian Wrestling Association and free medical camp by Keshav Ashram would be the main attractions of the mela. Besides, stalls by different departments like agriculture, horticulture, handloom, employment, rural development and various banks were set up so as to educate people about various schemes and also to display their products. The Reserve Bank of India in collaboration with the State Bank of India had set up an awareness stall to educate people about fake currency. The district administration has made adequate arrangement of drinking water, power supply, sanitation and security, said mela officer Sher Singh. |
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Admissions fair draws students to Jammu
Jammu, June 22 Youngsters are able to access information by interacting directly with the authorities of over 30 institutions offering over 100 career courses, from Delhi NCR, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mangalore, Dehradun, Jaipur etc. Some of the participating institutions are Amity University, Manav Rachna International University, Alliance University, DAV University, ITM University, Garden City College, AIMS, Acharya Institute and Jagran Lake City. “I am looking for my admission in Mass Communication & Journalism. The fair was actually of great help to me as it gave me access to many good colleges in India, all under one roof, offering a wide choice of programmes,” says Sweta Sharma, a class XII passout from Jammu. “My child wants to pursue engineering. At the fair, I have got the opportunity to meet the college authorities and clear all doubts about the admission procedure. In fact, this fair was a wonderful experience for me, as it has helped me to compare and choose options for my child,” states civil engineer Sanjay Kaul. Vivek Shukla, Director - Affairs Exhibitions & Media, organiser of the fair, said, “The fair is being organised to serve as ‘time & cost effective’ platforms for parents and students to access multiple institutions ‘under one roof’ and it helps students to make an informed decision about their career.” The three-day '10th Admissions Fair 2013' will be on till June 24 at Jhelum Resorts from 11 am to 7 pm. |
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JMC’s stray cattle drive a flop show
Jammu, June 22 There are only two cattle pounds functional in the city. Earlier, a proposal to establish a cattle pound with modern facility was shelved in Dili area near Sidhra, but locals objected to the JMC move, citing non-availability of sufficient land at the site as a major reason. JMC officials had informed that about 10 stray cattle would be caught daily under the anti-stray cattle drive and after every three months, they would be auctioned. Those left with the JMC would be handed over to various NGOs or released into forest regions of Akhnoor, Purmandal, Jajjar Kotli and Samba.
— TNS |
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ICAI’s Jammu-Srinagar chapter elects office-bearers
Jammu, June 22 The Jammu-Srinagar chapter of theInstitute of Cost Accountants of India held its 8th annual general meeting and elected new office bearers which included vice-chairman Chand Tikku, secretary M Sadagopan, joint secretary Sanjay Verma, treasurer Ramendra Kumar Rastogi, executive member Rajesh Kumar Sharma and Akash Gupta as the student member. Secretary of the organisation M Sadagopan hinted for a tie-up with the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Jammu region, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry to hold seminars to create awareness on governance issues and the role
of professional cost accountants. |
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