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Talwara camp migrants, police clash; 40 hurt
Free travel for numbardars, chowkidars in govt buses
Bad weather forces suspension
of Amarnath yatra
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Beneficiaries demand release of widow,
old-age pensions
Baby killed in clash over land
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Talwara camp migrants, police clash; 40 hurt
Udhampur, August 7 Clashes occurred when migrants restarted march towards Jammu this afternoon and were stopped by the police from doing so. When migrants reached near Serward, the cops deployed at Banganga chowki on the Katra-Reasi road set up a barricade and stopped them. The enraged migrants tried to remove the barricades and later sat on a dharna there. As Ashok Sharma, who along with senior police officers was present on the spot, went forward to pacify the agitating migrants, some people scuffled with the cops present there. In the melee, some miscreants threw stones towards the SP which hit his chest. In the meantime some migrants tried to pierce through the barricade of the police which led to clashes between them and cops. The situation took ugly turn when people started hurling stones on cops and the police resorted to lathi charge followed by lobbing of tear gas shells to disperse the mob which was out to move ahead. After the lathi charge and tear gas, the police brought the situation under control and picked up some of the migrants. A large number of migrants also received injuries in the police action. Meanwhile leaders of the migrants alleged the police resorted to unprovoked lathi charge when they were peacefully marching towards Jammu. Balwan Singh, president of the Migrants Action Committee, alleged the police did not spare even women while using force. Displaced people, living in Talwara migrant camp, started march towards Jammu on August 2, to start indefinite dharna in front of the office of the divisional commissioner. They had given a 10- day ultimatum to the district administration to solve their problems. They have been demanding relief on a par with Kashmiri migrants. |
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Free travel for numbardars, chowkidars in govt buses
Jammu, August 7 Azad, addressing a convention, asked numbardars and chowkidars to strengthen communal harmony, secularism and composite ethos of people. He said the two village-level institutions were an important bridge between administration and people and called upon them to discharge their new responsibilities with greater commitment. He said numbardars and chowkidars had to act as watchdog monitoring development works launched by the government across the state ensuring pace and quality of works and benefits to people. He said the two institutions had to act as eyes and ears of the administration and help the government carry forward development agenda. He said they would be required to monitor functioning of educational institutions, anganwari centres, mid-day meal scheme as well as the nutrition provided to the students in primary schools. He asked them to send their periodic reports to the additional district development commissioners. He said after an appraisal of chowkidars’ performance, further increase in their remunerations could be considered. He said the decision to raise honorarium of nambardars from Rs 81 to Rs 501 and of chowkidars from Rs 225 to Rs 500 restored the dignity of this institution. Referring to the “Roshni scheme”, Azad said under this decision, free ownership rights of around 17 lakh kanals of state land were conferred upon poor farmers. He asked numbardars and chowkidars to facilitate the beneficiaries in completing formalities prescribed in the law for this purpose. He said people in far-flung areas still did not have basic facilities for which his government had put on fast track the development of these areas.
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Bad weather forces suspension
of Amarnath yatra
Srinagar, August 7 At least 1.95 lakh pilgrims have had ‘darshan’ of the ice lingam of Lord Shiva at the cave since July 1 this year, when this year’s yatra began a day later due to heavy rain in the region. These include around 500 yatris every day, who reach the shrine to perform annual pilgrimage by helicopter services from
Baltal. At least 31 pilgrims from different parts of the country have died during pilgrimage this year, officials here said. These were all natural deaths and most of them due to heart attack and breathing problems. Barring two incidents of grenade explosion, one each at Baltal and Pahalgam, the yatra has been peaceful this year, while no such incidents had taken place during the past three years. One person died and 16 , most of them locals,got injured in an explosion at the Baltal base camp on July 17, while at least 10 persons were injured in an explosion at Pahalgam on July 21. The movement of yatris on the two trekking routes to the cave has been disrupted several times due to bad weather since the beginning of yatra last month. The officials claim the number of pilgrims who visited the shrine during the past one month was equal to the number that visited in the corresponding period during the previous years. However, sources claimed there was lower number of pilgrims in the wake of reports of shrinking of the holy ice lingam in the beginning this year due to various factors, including the global warming, increased number of pilgrims resulting in the generation of heat inside the cave and frequent landings of helicopters at the helipad close to the cave. The two-month-long yatra in the upper reaches of Pahalgam is scheduled to conclude on August 28 on Shrawan Poornima coinciding with Raksha
Bandhan. Traditionally pilgrims have been trekking on the 32-km-long route from Chandanwari to the shrine of Amarnath on Pahalgam axis in south Kashmir. A lower number of pilgrims had also been taking the shorter 14 km-long track from Baltal to the holy cave on Sonmarg axis. In view of the increasing number of pilgrims during the past few years, particularly after the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) was constituted in 2000, helicopter service has also been introduced. Five helicopters provide daily shuttling services between Baltal and the holy cave, while a helicopter service also operates from
Srinagar. |
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Beneficiaries demand release of widow,
old-age pensions
Udhampur, August 7 As poor women and old persons came on roads in the Majalata area of this district following the failure of the Social Welfare Department to release the pensions sanctioned for them under the National Security Scheme, the Director of the department concerned summoned the district social welfare officer, Udhampur and directed him to clear his position. “I have asked district social welfare officer to give his report why there is delay in releasing pensions for this needy lot of society”, said director social welfare, Satish Nehru, adding,
"the head office has already released pensions for all districts headquarters''. |
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Baby killed in clash over land
Udhampur , August 7 According to report reaching here, Sarja, daughter of Bajra Ram of Parankot, was killed when her father had a scuffle with his neighbour over a piece of land. As wife of Bajra Ram intervened, some persons attacked her with rod which hit the infant, who died instantly. As the hamlet is 70 km from Reasi, a police party has been dispatched to the spot to nab the culprits. |
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Jammu, August 7
