Jammu, November 2
The stage is all set for celebration of the festival of lights-Diwali tomorrow as various markets across Jammu city are drenched in festival colour.

Shopkeepers were seen busy selling items to the customers who came along with their families to buy buntings, colourful lights and fire-crackers.

It is not only the market, but also the temples in and around the city that are being decorated with full religious fervour to celebrate Diwali.

Shopkeepers, both small and big, and other business houses, are trying to rake in the moolah by providing customers all sorts of offers and discounts, which is largely the norm before the festival.

Various companies and business houses have installed their sign boards and hoardings in the city, informing the people about the discount being offered by them on purchase of items from their shops.

The shopkeepers and businessmen too have decorated their shops and business establishments in an impressive manner with colourful lights and buntings to draw customers.

The major markets in the city like Raghunath Bazar, Purani Mandi, Super Bazar, Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar, Patel Bazar, Link Road and Shalamar are in full bloom.

Stalls of fire-crackers and a long queue of customers to buy them is a common sight at every place.

“We are eagerly waiting for it because it is the time when we make up for the dry period which every shopkeeper goes through during different times,” said one of the shopkeepers at Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar.

“There is no doubt that inflation has affected business this year to some extent as compared to previous years but we ar used to all this now,” he added.

Pertinently, Diwali or Deepawali, the five-day festival begins with Naraka Chaturdashi, followed by Lakshmi Puja, Dhanteras, Bhai Dooj and Angadi Puja.

This festival marks the return of Lord Rama, Sita and Laxman to Ayodhya from their 14-year exile and the defeat of Ravana. The people of Ayodhya celebrated their return by adorning their path with earthen lamps or diyas.

Jammu, November 2
The busiest roads of the state's winter capital are playing host to shopkeepers' Diwali stalls which have encroached into the road, obstructing pedestrians and movement of the vehicles, which leads to traffic jams in Jammu.

The winter capital of the state is facing traffic chaos on the eve of Diwali as almost all the shopkeepers of Jammu city have came out of their shops with big stalls of their products on display. Two to five feet road has been encroached by the shopkeepers, which is creating traffic jams.

City residents who were out for Diwali shopping or to exchange gifts with their friends and relatives were stuck in the kilometres’ long traffic jam.

Sushil Gupta, a commuter, said, “It's bumper traffic here. I got stuck at New Plot for more than one-and-a-half hours due to traffic jam - all because of the shopkeepers who have encroached into the roads to display their products.”

“I wonder where the traffic police and JMC are these days. Shopkeepers' stalls are encroaching into roads,” he added.

Manmohan Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) traffic, said, "Thousands of vehicles are on the road due to the festival, so we have deployed additional traffic cops on roads and important chowks. The main reason of the chaos is the encroachment by the shopkeepers.”

“We cannot ask them to move their products, as it is the duty of JMC and local police, but our cops are doing their best to make the traffic flow smoother,” he added.

Not only the vehicular traffic but also pedestrians are affected by these encroachments.

“Where do we walk?” is a question now being posed by pedestrians who are now being forced to walk off the footpath right in the middle of the road.

The SSP said they had deputed more than 20 traffic cops at Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta Nagar, New Plot, Janipur, Talab Tillo, Nai Basti, Channi etc to control the traffic chaos.

Kiran Wattal, Commissioner, JMC, said, “We have given temporary permissions to some shopkeepers for Diwali, but whosoever has encroached into the roads without permission in the main markets, is being fined on the spot."

“We have constituted four teams to check these kinds of encroachments,” he added.

Katra November 2
The district administration in Reasi has finalised a comprehensive plan for implementation of the ‘Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP)’ programme for forthcoming parliamentary and Assembly elections.

Discussing the implementation of the programme during a meeting headed by District Development Commissioner Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary today, the officials said panchayats will be actively involved in the programme for its proper execution and all line departments will put coordinated efforts for creating awareness about voting rights and to facilitate the enrollment of new voters.

The meeting was also informed that a number of educational institutions have been entrusted the job of taking out awareness rallies and slogan competition.

Separate teams of officers have been constituted for rural and urban areas of the district and also for the areas where lowest turnout was reported in previous elections, the DDC was told.

More than a dozen ‘Election Facilitation Centers’ are being opened in remote areas, which will act as nodal points for registration of new voters, additions, deletions and updating as well as issuance of duplicate EPIC Cards.

The first facilitation centre is being opened at the office of the District Election Officer, the meeting was informed.

The DDC, meanwhile, directed the officials to initiate a process for appointing of booth-level officers from various departments to replace the teachers, deployed on election duty.

All the departments will carry out fresh exercise and propose new booth-level officers from among the field officials within a month. Formal training and appointment of these officers will start after the conclusion of summary revision of electoral rolls, the DDC said.

This process will also help the education system where under-staffing is already a problem, he added.

Special plan has been formulated for weaker and marginalised sections of society, including nomadic tribal population, for maximum coverage, the meeting was told.

The DDC also issued directions for taking effective measures to monitor the gender gap in electoral participation and also discussed the plan for covering the nomadic population in electoral process.

Officials from district administration, police and educational institutions were present on the occasion.

Jammu, November 2
Jagti Tenement Committee (JTC), a body of Kashmiri Pandits living at Jagti Township in the outskirts of Jammu, today welcomed the 12-member parliamentary sub-committee on their visit to the winter capital here.

The body was hopeful that the committee will give patient hearing to the sufferings of the people putting up at the township for early mitigation of the miseries of the “exiled community”.

Shadi Lal Pandita, president, Jagti Tenement Committee, said to ensure permanent rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandit community in the Valley, a safe and secure place should be identified in Kashmir.

“In case it is not possible to rehabilitate the whole community at one safe and secure place, three satellite townships could be established at Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla,” he said.

Pandita also said the community should be given due representation in the state legislature as well as in the Parliament.

“Seats should be reserved for Kashmiri Pandits in the state legislature and the Parliament,” he said, adding, “Three Lok Sabha seats be reserved for the KPs.”

The KP leader also called for compensation in lieu of damaged/lost properties of the community.

“Each and every migrant family has been suffering a loss of Rs 2 lakh every year due to damages and losses to their properties in the Valley, as such proportionate compensation needs to be granted to the community for the past 25 years of migration,” Pandita said. 

Jammu, November 2
The Ranbir institute of martial arts Jammu bagged 18 medals in first open kickboxing championship held at MA Stadium here.

Fifteen schools and five clubs from seven districts participated in the championship in which the Ranbir institute of martial arts bagged 11 gold, two silver and five bronze medals. Twenty six students of this institute had participated in the event.

Ayush Dogra, Akhil Bharti, Aman Gupta, Aryan Kattal, Anjali Choudhary, Anshu Langeh, Megha, Poonam, Tanishka, Jagpreet Kaur and Ommnish Kundal won gold medals, Ridhima Sharma and Nancy Kumari won silver while Jaswinder Singh, Tarun Sharma, Kanav Sabarwal, Ravinder Kaur and Sumit Kaur won bronze medals.

Pankaj Mehra, coach of these students, congratulated them for their performance.

Jammu, November 2
Grappler Pamma, who hails from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab, today defeated Benia of Jammu and Kashmir to lift the 67th Chatha Gujjarn (Marh) Kesari Vishal Dangal, organised by Jai Peer Baba Dangal Committee, Chatha Gujjarn Marh in association with Jammu and Kashmir Indian Style Wrestling Association.

A total 85 bouts were held on the occasion, with grapplers from across the Jammu region and J&K Police, besides wrestlers from Punjab and Harayana participating in the event.

Minister for Planning, Labour and Employment, Ajay Sadhotra was the chief guest on the occasion.

Treasurer, Indian Style Wrestling Association, Shiv Kumar Sharma presided over the function. The winner was awarded a cash prize of Rs 45,000 by Sadhotra, while Benia fetched Rs 30,000. 

Jammu, November 2
Army Public School (APS), Akhnoor, has qualified for the CBSE National Volleyball championship.

Chairman of the school, Brigadier SK Dey, on the occasion congratulated the team for achieving the feat and wished them luck for the forthcoming tournament.

A total of 40 teams from across the Northern India had participated in the North Zone Volleyball Cluster.