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Park eats into fort wall base
Landslides triggered by heavy rain block Jammu-Rajouri national highway
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Aerial survey: Authorities arrange rooftop audience for Omar
Azad yet to visit
Kishtwar
Relief sought for rain-damaged crops
Minister visits rain affected villages
Karnah SDM asks officers not to leave headquarters
Goripora gets community centre
Tug-of-war state team leaves for Nationals
Jammu students excel in speedball
YSCC to hold J-K Friendship Cricket Cup
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Park eats into fort wall base
Jammu, August 22 The ancient Bahu Fort, constructed over 30 kanal is in danger after the collapse of the 110 feet wall from the right side. The remaining portion of the wall has also developed major cracks. It is a violation of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, which stipulates that nothing can be constructed within the 100-metre radius of any historical monument, as per the Archeological Department. But the park was built before this law was implemented. Jatinder Kumar alias Bitta Mahant, who looks after the Kali Mata Temple inside the fort said, "The heavy rocks and trees outside the walls of the fort were removed while constructing the aquarium, which served to retain the walls." "The steep slope is filled with soil has weakened the foundations of the fort, so the heavy rain has collapsed the wall of the fort," he added. The Archaeology Department has also agreed that the construction of the aquarium has weakened the foundation of the Bahu Fort from the right side. "Every historic building needs retaining walls to strengthen the foundation of the building, so that the erosion can be controlled. It can be one of the main reasons behind the collapse of the wall that there is a steep slope filled with soil behind the wall of the Bahu Fort," said Peerzada Ashraf, Deputy Director, Archaeology Department. “At the time of construction of the aquarium, the fort was not under the Archaeology Department and we cannot expect conservation and preservation work to be done by the Fisheries Department. They carried out the beautification work without taking care of the conservation of the fort,” he added. The Archaeological Department officials are of the view that the use of concrete and cement in the same wall by the PWD and the Jammu Municipal Corporation before handing it over to the Archaeology Department had harmed the wall. Ashraf admitted that despite a steep slope behind the wall, the department was not aware of that the foundation of the wall had weakened. “We didn’t have any idea that this wall could have collapsed from the foundation, there were cracks on the wall which were repaired by the JDA. This time we will make a strong foundation of the wall with a retaining wall,” Ashraf said. RK Dogra, Director, Fisheries, Jammu, said, “At the time of the construction of the aquarium, a world class architect was instructed that the aquarium should be made in such a manner that it should not harm the structure of the Bahu Fort.” “The preservation of the fort is the duty of the Archaeology Department and the Fisheries Department should not be blamed for it," he added. The law
It is a violation of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, which stipulates that nothing can be constructed within a 100-metre radius of any historical monument, as per the Archaeological Department. But the park was built before this law was implemented |
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Landslides triggered by heavy rain block Jammu-Rajouri national highway
Rajouri, August 22 Most of the barricades on both sides of the road got washed away in the rains. Uprooted trees are still lying on the roadsides, which are hampering the smooth movement of traffic as well as road blockades due to massive landslides at several places are yet to be cleared. The highway has sunk at a number of places and huge crates have developed on the road. Rajouri and Poonch belts are hilly and accident- prone areas and the prevailing condition of the road make it more vulnerable and also hamper the movement of the Army to the sensitive border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. Commandant, Border Road Organisation (BRO), Col Satya Narayan said, “It is true that a number of important road links have suffered massive damaged due to landslides during recent rainfall but our teams are on the job in several areas to clear roads for smooth traffic movement and this has been done in many areas." Apart from damage to the highways, a massive landslide at Treru village of Kalakote tehsil after the cloud burst in which 1.5 km land turned into an artificial lake in a river near here. According to villagers, road connectivity to 20 villagers was affected and six houses submerged in the artificial lake, however, there was no report of loss of human life. Heavy rain in for past couple of weeks has damaged property here.
District Development Commissioner, Rajouri, Faqir Chand Bhagat, said, “Two persons died and over 1,500 houses were damaged in the monsoon fury. We have started giving compensation in which Rs 70,000 will be given to fully damaged property and partially damaged will get Rs 15,000," he added. |
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Aerial survey: Authorities arrange rooftop audience for Omar
Jammu, August 22 Amid hot and humid weather, hundreds of rain-affected families stood with red flags in their hands in Jandrah village and adjoining panchayat areas-55-km from here. According to the panchayat members, they got phone calls from the office of the district Panchayat Officer this morning, informing them about the aerial survey by the Chief Minister to assess the losses suffered by the people during the recent heavy rain. "We received phone calls from the office of District Panchayat Officer early this morning when the officials informed us about the aerial survey of the Chief Minister in the area. We were asked to convey to the people that they would hold red flags in their hands and draw the attention of the Chief Minister from their rooftops by waving the flags," a panchayat member said. He said the residents stood for hours. "It was a cruel joke with the people who have suffered extensive loss due to recent rains. Is this the way to assess losses," questioned Panchayat member. Sarpanch, Panchayat Halqa Jandrah, Anil Sharma, also informed about the phone call from the landline number of the office of District Panchayat office, informing them about the aerial survey of the Chief Minister. The District Panchayat Office, however, denied any phone calls made to any panchayat members.
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Azad yet to visit
Kishtwar
Jammu, August 22 Azad, who holds good influence over the people belonging to all the communities in the Doda district comprising Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts, was yet to visit Kishtwar town and persuade the people to work in tandem to strengthen and promote communal harmony and brotherhood in the region. His close aides, however, said he was in constant touch with the leaders of all the communities and had ‘minute-to-minute’ details of the situation. “The credit of all peace efforts being made to restore normalcy in Kishtwar goes to Ghulam Nabi Azad as he is in constant touch with all the people, including political leaders, of the region. On his directions, an all-party delegation, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, visited the town and held discussions with the representatives of both the communities so that peace and communal brotherhood are restored,” G M Saroori, former minister and MLA, Inderwal assembly segment in Kishtwar, said. Saroori said Azad had deliberately delayed his Kishtwar visit because he did not want to give any opportunity to the opposition parties to exploit the situation, especially after the state government stopped Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, from visiting Kishtwar on August 11. Azad used to make frequent visits to all parts of erstwhile Doda district during the crisis period. He had recently visited different parts of Doda district after major earthquake jolted the region on May 1. He had also made serious efforts to defuse the tension in Bhaderwah town following clashes between two communities some time back. “We regret the absence of Ghulam Nabi Azad at this time of crisis. He should have visited to town at least once to see the scale of devastation and destruction. Hundreds of shops and commercial establishments have been reduced to ashes, while a deep fear continues to occupy the minds of the people about the fragile peace,” a local BJP worker, who refused to be named, said. He said the government did not allow Arun Jaitley to visit Kishtwar but being a local leader, Azad should have had an interaction with the people to share their pain. “Unfortunately, he has not uttered even a single condemnation of the violence and loss suffered by the people so far,” he said. Naresh Gupta, local MLC, said Azad had personally met the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Union Home Secretary after the incident and it was on his advice that Army was deployed and strict curfew was imposed in Kishtwar after seven hours of the incident. |
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MC drive mere eyewash
Jammu, August 22 Officials said very few people had been prosecuted by the JMC as test reports took many weeks to come before any legal action could be taken. The JMC launches routine checking and much publicity is given to such drives. But on ground, not much has been done to educate the traders to keep hygiene in mind while preparing eatables. There are 71 wards, spread over an area of 112 sq km, which make up the Jammu city and its newly developed colonies which came up after 1990. Health wing of the corporation has the responsibility of Ward number 1 to Ward number 48, while the remaining wards are looked after by the legal meteorology department. The corporation has constituted special teams to check production the quality of food items and the influx of adulterated raw material from various markets in Jammu. Jammu Municipal Corporation Health Officer, Dr Vinod Sharma said, “The government has taken steps to provide more trained manpower and new equipment for the labs are being procured”. He said in the past two decades, there had been rapid expansion of the city and monitoring had become a major challenge. The adulteration was mainly found in milk, sweets, meat products, processed food and eatables served at hotels and restaurants, which directly affect the lives of the common man. "There is no purpose of such an exercise as we still have only one public analyst at Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM) at Canal Road. We need at least two such people in Jammu and one each at district level, to maintain safety standards”, said an official. "Before every festival, huge publicity is given to the drives launched by the Municipal Corporation. But on ground, it does not achieve anything. There is no follow up as it takes months before the results are out”, the official added.
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Relief sought for rain-damaged crops
Katra, August 22 Organisation members Prem Nath Bali, Sudarshan Singh, Hukam Chand, Abdul Karim, Mangat Ram accompanied him. The villagers told the visiting team that over 100 houses had been damaged and many had been washed away at Bhamag, but the government had not taken any measures in this regard. Sohan Lal Sharma stressed on the formation of concrete bund surrounding the fields. He also demanded adequate compensation to the farmers who have suffered losses due to these heavy rains and floods.
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Minister visits rain affected villages
Jammu, August 22 During his visit, the minister met people of Abtal village in Vijaypur whose houses have been collapsed due to the recent heavy rains. Deepak
Choudhary, Rajinder Sharma, Bittu, Tona and Pinki were also present on the occasion. |
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Karnah SDM asks officers not to leave headquarters
Srinagar, August 22 The officers posted in the Sub-Division have often been found leaving the headquarters, either to avail leave or to attend meetings outside the headquarters, without seeking proper permission, resulting in non-redressal of grievances of the people. “Accordingly, the officers have been warned for any dereliction and action shall be taken against the erring officers,” the Sub-Divisional Magistrate said in a statement.
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Goripora gets community centre
Srinagar, August 22 An official said the double-storey community centre was constructed by the Tourism Department at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore. MLA, Amira Kadal, Nasir Aslam Wani, legislators Peer Afaq and Dharamvir Singh Oberoi, besides District Development Commissioner, Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Director Tourism, Kashmir, Talat Parvez and Managing Director, Cable Car Corporation, Tufail Mattoo were also present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, the Tourism Minister urged the people to elect ‘proper and honest representatives to represent them’ in the state Assembly. “Jammu and Kashmir is mini India, where people of different religions, caste and ethnic groups live together and maintaining their unity is the prime duty of all public representatives,” he said. Earlier, he visited Jamia Masjid and took stock of several works under execution, taken up by the Tourism Department for upgrading facilities for the people. “An amount of Rs 4.55 crore is being expended on the construction of wazukhana, a restaurant, face lifting of shops and a Muslim park. The work on wazukhana is apace and works for face lifting of 138 shops have been tendered while the development work of Muslim park would be tendered shortly,” an official said.
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Tug-of-war state team leaves for Nationals
Jammu, August 22 Earlier, the teams were selected during a camp organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Tug-of-War Association at Unique Public Higher Secondary School, Gadigarh, which was attended by 45 players. A total of 27 players were selected by a panel of experts, including president of the association Hardeep Singh Anand, general secretary Ravinder Singh Sasan, Deepjot Singh Anand and Ajay Peshin. The teams: Sub-junior girls: Shruti, Sapna, Natalia, Gurleen, Tableen, Serbjeet, Manpreet, Shriya Junior girls: Meenu, Taniya, Preeti, Sheefali, Neha, Madhu, Suman, Sheetal and Priya. Ashkush Badyal is the team coach. Senior women:
Sahibdeep, Manju, Kanchan, Lalita, Anu, Indu, Pooja, Suman and Anupama. Meena Kumari and Babu Ram are accompanying the team as coach and manager, respectively. |
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Jammu students excel in speedball
Jammu, August 22 Two other students of the school, namely Aryan Kangotra and Ankit Sharma, secured the 7th and the 10th positions respectively, at the competition. The championship was organised by the Speedball Federation of India. Principal of the school Neeru congratulated the students and their coach Sunny Nanda for the winning performances in the international championship. |
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YSCC to hold J-K Friendship Cricket Cup
Jammu, August 22 Manzoor Ahmed Batt, patron of YSCC, while briefing the media said, teams from 15 states of the country were expected to take part in the tournament. The participating states included Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Chhatisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pardesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and hosts J&K. Batt further said the aim of the tournament was to spread the message of peace and communal harmony through the medium of sports, besides giving an opportunity to cricketers from outside the state.—TNS |
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The 110-metre portion of the ancient Bahu Fort wall, which has been standing tall for centuries, fell because of the steep slope of a park near the wall. 
