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Kalam meets quake-hit kids
Kalam concludes J&K visit Earthquake melts boundaries in Kashmir |
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Expedite work, HC tells relief officers
Terrorists building underground trenches
3 infiltrators shot
Sikhs laud nod to Pak shrine visit
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Kalam meets quake-hit kids
Srinagar, November 27 Interacting with students of various government and private schools at Muskaan in the Badami Bagh cantonment here last evening, the President replied many questions during the one-hour programme. The orphans and other students presented a cultural programme. Dr Kalam was accompanied by the Governor, Lieut-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd), Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Army Commander Northern Command, Lieut-Gen Deepak Kapoor, Chief Secretary, Mr Vijay Bakaya, and General Dilhon, GOC 15 Corps. The children pledged that they would work for pursuing knowledge and inculcate moral values. The President said the home was the ideal and happy unit from all respects. He said nothing is impossible in this world and children should bear in their minds that with strong will and determination they can achieve any goal. He said every individual having positive dream could transform these dreams into thoughts, and that all thoughts pay the way for realistic action. When thoughts are positive, all actions are progressive and fruitful for the nation. The President also witnessed a photo-exhibition organised by the Army on the lawns of Muskan Orphanage Centre where photographs of the earthquake which struck on October 8 were exhibited. Exhibition displayed fast action taken by Army and civil administration in rescuing people. |
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Kalam concludes J&K visit Srinagar, November 27 Dr Kalam, while addressing schoolchildren in Higher Secondary School, Uri, near the collapsed school building, said the state government and the Army worked jointly to provide relief and assistance to solve the problems of victims of earthquake. He had arrived in the valley yesterday to review the relief and rehabilitation measures for the quake victims and visited Tangdhar yesterday. Dr Kalam exhorted the students to pursue excellence in every sphere to become the best citizens who have to shoulder the responsibilities of tomorrow and lead the country and the state towards prosperity and development. Dr. Kalam said that by 2020 India would be economically prosperous for which he urged the youth to work hard. The President symbolically distributed relief cheques among the earthquake victims of Uri. He said the relief amount was awarded to the victims during the Lok Adalats convened by the District Court, Baramula. The Governor, Lieut Gen S.K. Sinha, the Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Chief Justice of the J&K High Court, Mr B.A. Khan, and Army and civil officers were also present. The District and Sessions Judge, Baramula, Mr A.R. Bhat, informed the President that in all 10 Lok Adalats had been convened so far and Rs 5.05 crore was awarded as compensation in favour of 569 victims. Dr Kalam returned to New Delhi in the afternoon and was seen off at the Srinagar technical airport by the Governor, the Chief Minister, the Chief Justice, Minister for Social Welfare, Haji Nissar Ali, the Chief Secretary, Mr Vijay Bakaya, the GOC, Northern Command, Mr Deepak Kumar, Gen Dhillon and other civil and police officers. A question-answer hour was held and Dr Kalam answered every question put by students. Later, Dr Kalam visited Subdistrict Hospital, Uri, where he interacted with the patients injured during the earthquake. The President inaugurated the Telemedicine Centre in Subdistrict Hospital, Uri, which has been connected with all the leading hospitals of the state and the country.
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Earthquake melts boundaries in Kashmir Teetwal (Kashmir): Two adjacent villages separated by history, and a river, are now sadly united by a sense of grief and loss. Teetwal, located 182 km from Srinagar, is a small village of 1,030 and lies on the northernmost peripheries of Kashmir. Nestling below the Himalayan range, it also forms part of a belt that lies closest to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). That is why this mountainous area was badly affected by the devastating October 8 earthquake. Roads to this hamlet effectively stop at Tangdhar. Access to Teetwal is a challenge, two-hour trek over rocks and debris, across rivers some with damaged bridges, by passing destroyed homes and shredded lives. Less than 50 ft, nestled on another portion of the Himalayan range, lies the village of Chaliyani in PoK. Over 50 years ago these sister villages were yanked away from each other by the Line of Control (LoC) imposed as a result of an Indo-Pakistan clash in 1948. Here, the LoC took the shape of a swirling, 60-foot broad river, the Kishen Ganga. On one side lay Kashmir and on the other side lay PoK. For the residents of both these villages, life changed drastically. A connecting bridge was dismantled, and communications between the two villages decreased further when militancy took root in the Valley in the 1990s. In the interest of security, telephone lines were suspended between the two halves of Kashmir by the Indian government. Though in close proximity, villagers could not even shout to each other or send messages, because of the security forces of both India and Pakistan that lined both sides of the riverbank. The division separated families, splintered relations against the backdrop of geo-political tensions. All the residents of Teetwal had some close relation or the other living across. Much like any other physically close villages, here too the residents of Teetwal and Chaliyani were part of an extended family, celebrating the good things of life and sorrowing over the tragic ones. But what used to be an easy interaction between these two villages soon became artificially sealed. But natural disasters do not respect political boundaries. The same earthquake that annihilated large portions of PoK also badly impacted Teetwal and the surrounding Tangdhar region. (Uri and Tangdhar are regions worst affected by the earthquake.) In Tangdhar homes and lives have been decimated. The maize fields already harvested look dry and unyielding. Maize, along with other life preserving material like kerosene stored in individual houses as winter stock, is now buried under homes. The only untouched building is incredibly a grey stone medical centre that still stands firm on a foundation of rock. In this one area Tangdhar at least 300 deaths have occurred and many are still missing,” says Sunil Dutt, who heads the district police. In Teetwal, 22 persons have died and two are still missing. Six days after the quake, Teetwal’s villagers have no idea of how many casualties have occurred in Chaliyani. “I can see that the homes are not there or even the number of people who used to be walking around,” says Naseera Begum, who has lost a nephew and her newly constructed home built last year. Villagers estimate that with most homes of Chaliyani’s 4,000 odd inhabitants having been flattened, the figure will be high. Nasir Ahmed, a schoolteacher in Teetwal’s primary school, has two nieces and one sister in Chaliyani. He does not know what has become of them. Similarly, 14-year-old Anzar Ahmed Khokkar, sitting outside the rubble of what used to be his school, is anxious to tell his maternal uncle who settled in Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, that his sister, Zareena Begum, Anzar’s mother, was buried under rubble and died four days ago. “He should know because he was her only brother,” the boy frets. He wants to tell him that he is looking after his baby sister carefully so that she does not miss her mother. In spite of the simulated divisions, the love and the longing remain. Four days after the quake, loudspeakers from Chaliyani were urging the president of Teetwal to come across and attend the mass burial of 20 persons who had died in the earthquake. The villagers said that the loudspeaker urged everyone to come and pay their last respect to their loved ones. The LoC is not currently being patrolled by any Indian army battalions. However, the inhabitants of Teetwal with their own lives in shambles cannot go to help their Chaliyani neighbours. “Without any basic facilities ourselves, all we can offer our brothers and sisters across the LoC is sympathy and love,” Raja Ali Gohar, a landlord based in Teetwal says, as he runs after a relief packet dropped by the Indian army from a camouflaged Chetak helicopter.
— Grassroots Features
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Expedite work, HC tells relief officers
Srinagar, November 27 This order came in compliance to its earlier orders on November 24 whereby the Director Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Kashmir, Chief Engineer Electric Maintenance, Superintending Engineer, PHE Department, Conservator of Forests, Kashmir North Circle, General Manager, Sales J&K State Forest Corporation, General Manager SICOP and General Manager, BSNL have filed detailed report regarding the measures taken by their departments in Uri and Tangdhar. The Minister, the Secretary and the Director, CA&PD, Kashmir, all have been directed to provide one more month’s free ration to the affected families in the two areas. They are further directed to report instructions on free supply of ration to the affected areas for some more months and to submit their response to the court in this regard on the next date. The tax authorities concerned have also been directed not to charge any Value Added Tax (VAT) on timber that was to be supplied to the affected people for raising temporary shelters. Similarly, the Forest Department has been directed not to charge any development charges on the timber, which would reduce the price of the timber by Rs 10 to 15 per cft. These authorities were also directed to explore the possibility of giving an adjustment in the allocation of half broken, dry and fallen trees in the forests to the State Forest Corporation which could also reduce the cost of the timber to be supplied to the affected people and report instructions on this to the court on the next date. |
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Terrorists building underground trenches
Jammu, November 27 The Romeo Force of the army came across one such transit camp in the Lakharwali area of Thanamandi on Friday last from where a large quantity of arms and ammunition was recovered. Another hideout was busted in the Khan area of Thanamandi the same day during search operations. The underground hideout, that was being used as a transit camp by terrorists infiltrating into the Indian territory, was 6ft x 9ft and 5 ft deep with an entrance of 2ft x 3ft inside a dense jungle of Lakharwali. The hideout was made of wooden planks and bellies. An assortment of ammunition and other logistics was seized in the hideout. This included 4 AK magazines, 2 Chinese hand grenades, one remote controlled improvised explosive device, one improvised explosive device delay switch, 30 pencil cells, 15 blankets, 2 sleeping bags, 2 pair combat dress, one gas cylinder, 2 packets of candles and other material. In another operation at Khan, five grenades, two improvised explosive devices pressure switch, plastic explosives and woollens were recovered. This indicates that the recent earthquake that has caused destruction in the areas of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) where most of the terrorist training camps were situated, has not resulted in decline in quantum of infiltration of ultras. The damage caused to the border fencing on the Indian side at many places due to the quake has made infiltration of terrorists easy. The Indian army had first of all detected such underground trenches of terrorists in the Hilkaka area of Poonch about two years ago. These hideouts were destroyed and huge cache of arms, ammunition and rations was recovered from there.
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3 infiltrators shot Srinagar, November 27 A defence spokesman said the alert troops spotted movement of militants near Hathlanga close to the LoC fence last night, who were “tracked till they came near the LoC fence” where they were shot dead. Three AK rifles, one pistol, 617 cartridges of AK rifle, one UBGL and 10 hand grenades were recovered from the site, the spokesman said. The identity of the militants was yet to be ascertained. The police and security forces in a joint operation seized 16 kg of explosives from the possession of Zahoor Ahmad Dar at Naidkhai, Sumbal, in Baramula district yesterday.
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Sikhs laud nod to Pak shrine visit
Jammu, November 27 A former president of the State Gurdwara Prabandhak Board, Mr S. S. Wazir, told mediamen here today that “by agreeing to allow Sikhs from Jammu and Kashmir to visit different gurdwaras in Pakistan, General Musharraf had fulfilled their long-cherished desire.” He said the permission to Kashmiri Sikhs to visit Pakistan was the outcome of the peace process initiated by Delhi and Islamabad. He said, “Our appeal to the heads of the two governments is to carry the peace process to its logical conclusion so that turmoil is replaced by tranquility in the Indian subcontinent.” Mr Wazir, Mr Narbir Singh, president of the youth Akali Dal, Mr Mohinder Singh, chief organiser of the Bhai Kanahya Nishkam Seva Society, and Mr Paramjit Singh, president of the AISSF, said it would be for the first time since 1947 that groups of Sikhs from Jammu and Kashmir would join the religious procession of the community people from various areas of India visiting religious places in Pakistan. The Sikh leaders complimented the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, especially its president, Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, for organising a large Sikh procession to Pakistan. They said the time had come for India and Pakistan to shed mistrust and bitterness and work for closer cooperation in the interest of peace in the subcontinent. |
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