Jammu, February 6
Despite strained relations between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai terror attack, a Pakistani national is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH) here.

Eight years ago, Noor Ahmed Mir (64), a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, was diagnosed with a chronic form of Hepatitis C. However, in the absence of proper medical facilities in Pakistan, he could not get it treated there.

“There is lack of proper medical facilities in Pakistan. I went to almost every hospital, including to Karachi and Lahore, but to no avail,” Noor Ahmed Mir told The Tribune.

Ahmed, who is all praise for Indian people, say the people here have shown a lot of love and concern for him. “I really feel happy. People come and greet me. Doctors attending on me show a lot of concern and provide extra care to me,” he said. Asked to comment on the strained relations between the two nations, he said terrorism was harming the relations.

“We all are one. I was born in Jammu, but my family migrated to Pakistan. Now after more than 60 years, I am back to the place of my birth. Ours is a divided family and the strained relations between the nations harm the interests of people like us,” Mir said.

Mir hoped that the relations between the two countries would improve so that more cross-border routes could be opened.

“There should be more people-to-people contact and more cross border routes should be opened,” Mir said.

Mir, who had arrived on a medical visa to India, was informed about the treatment facilities in the GMCH by another patient from Pakistan, who was treated here.

“Last year, we treated three patients from Pakistan. One of them had told him about the treatment facilities at the GMCH,” Dr Bharat Bhushan Gupta, head of gastroenterology, who is treating Mir, said.

Jammu, February 6
Accusing the management of Citizen’s Cooperative Bank Limited of being arbitrary and autocratic, the bank’s Subordinate Staff Association has urged the state government to disband the existing board of directors and reinstate six employees, including three whose services had been terminated.

The association has also demanded a thorough probe into the alleged misappropriation of the bank’s assets.

Addressing mediapersons here today, association president Parminder Singh accused bank chairman Dinesh Gupta of unleashing a reign of terror on employees.

Dinesh Gupta had thrashed a bank employee, Murli Lal, recently after he refused to work at the residence of the former, alleged Parminder Singh.

Though Gupta had apologised for his unruly behaviour in presence of the bank staff, he later terminated the services of Murli Lal, Raju Ganjoo and me (Parminder), he said.

Recalling the sequence of events that led to the termination of their services, Parminder said the bank had called a meeting at Hotel Asia on October 22 last year with the Subordinate Staff Association and the Citizen’s Cooperative Bank Staff Association, where the management forced them to sign an agreement.

When managing director Anil Goswami had expressed his inability to revise the grades of the employees, we protested and since then the management had been nursing a grudge against us, Parminder said.

“Even we were forced to campaign for one of the board of directors, who contested the 2008 Assembly elections,” he said, adding that we were threatened of dire consequences.

He said after the managing director refused to revise grades, the employees, as a mark of protest, had staged a walkout from the bank meeting.

However, the chairman and his coterie terminated the services of three employees for no fault of theirs, alleged Parminder. He called it victimisation and exploitation of employees.

As if it was not enough, the management also suspended three employees for their association with the Subordinate Staff Association, he alleged. He added that the management had made about 25 to 30 back-door appointments to accommodate ‘blue-eyed’ individuals at the cost of deserving candidates.

Parminder threatened that if the employees, whose services had been terminated and who had been suspended, were not reinstated immediately, the employees would go on a hunger strike.

Meanwhile, bank chairman Dinesh Gupta outrightly rejected all allegations, terming them false and frivolous.

He said disciplinary action had been taken against employees, under the rules for dereliction of duty. 
Services of Parminder Singh were terminated earlier also and action had been taken against Murli, Raju Ganjoo and three others as they, too, had violated rules, said Gupta.

“As far as the allegations of back-door appointments and rising NPA, poor CRR and misleading the RBI were concerned, this bank like any other bank appoints employees as per a proper procedure. Further, the RBI completed the inspection of the bank records on January 28 this year and found nothing wrong or hazy,” said Gupta. He said, “We were also going to serve a notice on these employees.”

Srinagar, February 6
Life was limping back to normal in the valley as the sun shone bright today following last night's rain and snow in many places but the Met Department has predicted a fresh spell of snow and rain in the next 24 hours.

The administration today quickly cleared major routes of snow while traffic on the Jammu-Kashmir highway resumed after 10.30 am after it was stopped last evening due to stone-shooting in Panthal and heavy snowfall around Jawahar Tunnel. But roads connecting different districts and interiors remain blocked.

Traffic SSP Kifayat Haider said: "We got the Jammu-Kashmir highway functional both ways today after a strenuous effort put in by the Beacon authorities," he said. Hundreds of vehicles stranded on the highway could resume journey only today. "It was cold and we really suffered. But we were fortunate to have faced it only for one night," Asif, a passenger vehicle driver, said.

Many parts of the valley were without electricity for the whole night and early today. A spokesman of the divisional administration said important roads, including those leading to major district headquarters, hospitals, airport, power receiving stations and water treatment plants, were made functional by 2.30 pm. Reports from various places said some areas remained without power but things had improved in towns by the afternoon.

However, Bandipora-Sopore road, Khanabal-Pahalgam road, Nehama-Aharbal road, Pulwama-Shopian road, Pulwama-Keller road, and many others remained closed and work was on to open them.

Divisional commissioner Masaud Samoon said the 400-KV Wagoora-Kishanpora line had developed a fault at Pir Panchal and Grid Station of India engineers were on the job to repair it.

Assar (Ramban), February 6
Entire Doda and Kishtwar districts were cut off from the rest of the country today after about 200 metres of stretch on the Batote-Kishtwar National Highway caved in and sank into the Chenab at Assar. One person was feared killed when some vehicles, stranded on the highway, also sank with the road into the river.

Although Border Roads Organisation (BRO) teams have started repairing the damaged stretch, it might take at least a week for restoring traffic on the road. “At least five to six days are required to develop an alternative road for traffic to resume”, deputy commissioner, Doda, Sharief-ud-Din, who rushed to the spot to supervise the rescue operation, told the Tribune. He, however, said a chopper would be available at the Doda district headquarters to meet any emergency.

Eyewitnesses told the Tribune that since yesterday afternoon, the road was gradually sinking into the Chenab, but the authorities did not pay any attention except stopping vehicles at Batote. As shooting stones and landslides were going since Thursday afternoon, a large number of vehicles were stranded on the highway. It was at 2 am that about 200 metres of road stretch at Assar sunk into the river along with two trucks, an ambulance and a Maruti van. All inmates of the ill-fated vehicles, except the driver of the Maruti van, managed to come out of their vehicles before the the road sank. Driver of the van Sohan Lal of Khelani in Doda district was reportedly in the vehicle when the road sank. He is reportedly missing and is feared to have been washed away by the river.

Local residents blamed the authorities for the incident and regretted that the latter knew that this stretch on the highway was sinking for the past three months. “As soon as the authorities started filling the reservoir of the Baglihar hydroelectric project, the road started sinking,” said Randeep Sharma, a resident of Assar, and pointed out that river water had been causing soil erosion.

Sharma said the local residents had brought the matter to the notice of the authorities a number of time, but nothing concrete had been done so far. Shashipal Goswami, a local social activist, told the Tribune that soil erosion was the main cause of the sinking of the road.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah air-dashed to Doda district to assess the situation. He conducted an aerial survey of the area and later gave directions to the authorities to take effective measures to ensure supply of essential commodities. 

Srinagar/Jammu, February 6
The Army has arrested a militant and seized a loaded pistol in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, official sources said today.

The militant identified as Mohammad Hanief was arrested by a party of the 10 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles from Madine village in the Uri sector of Baramulla yesterday, the sources said.

The sources said a pistol, a magazine, six rounds and a mobile phone were seized from him.

In another incident, the security forces today busted a militant hideout and recovered UGBL grenades, explosive material besides some ammunition in Poonch district, official sources here said.

However, two pistol magazines, 14 rounds, six UGBL grenades, three big anti-personal mines, three small anti-personal mines, 59 PIKA rounds, 254 AK rounds, 250 grams of explosive, one RPG booster, four IED leads and one IED battery were recovered from the hideout. — UNI

Jammu, February 6
While most of the aspirants of the Elementary Teachers' Training course prefer to get “quick degree” without joining classes, agents having “franchisee” of recognised colleges in adjacent states have been exploiting the situation to the hilt.

Most of the students hailing from different areas of Punjab like Batala, Mukerian, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana rued that they were getting a raw deal at the hands of the college administration. The students said they could not appear in their annual examination despite the lapse of one and a half year after they got admitted.

Some girl students of a Jammu College hailing from Hoshiarpur said they got enrolled in the college through some agent in September 2007, but their annual examinations were still awaited. Interestingly, the court had banned admissions to all 220 ETT colleges across the region in 2007.

“We got admission in the institute through some agent, and in the name of study, we attended some classes at the franchisee of the institute in Hoshiarpur itself,” they said, adding that the college had put forth a condition that our exams would be held only if we bring two aspiring candidates along with us. They complained that colleges were not citing any reason as to why their examination would take place along with the fresh batch of candidates in June.

“This will amount to three years in securing the degree which otherwise is a two-year course,” the students alleged, adding that whenever they go for classes at respective colleges, they were asked to put up in the hostel where the authorities concerned charge money at whimsical rates. They alleged that the agents charged a sum of Rs 35,000 as annual fee while the actual total fee structure set for the one-year amounts to Rs 13,000.

Chairman of the J&K Board of School Education Desh Bandhu Gupta said: “Due to the court order, admissions could not take place in 2007 and the admission for the session 2007-09 got shifted to 2008-10, for which admission took place in November 2008.”

“We have time and again categorically instructed students not to fall prey to agents,” he said and termed such franchisee, if any, as illegal.

Jammu, February 6
About 400 children drawn from different schools of Jammu region today participated in an on-the-spot drawing competition organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages here.

Kathua, February 6
Minister for Industries and Commerce, Labour and Employment Surjit Singh Slathia today said effective inter-department coordination was imperative for timely completion of major projects coming up under various government schemes.

The minister was speaking at a meeting to review the works being undertaken under the annual plan in Kathua district. District development commissioner, Kathua, Mandeep Kaur and senior district officers of various departments were present in the meeting.

Slathia reiterated the resolve of the coalition government to provide transparent and corruption-free governance to the people. Stating that the Chief Minister has underlined a broad road map to give boost to industrial growth, he said golden incentives were being extended to all big industrial houses of the country for setting up their units in the state.

He said the industries would have to employ 80 per cent workforce from local populace that would increase employment opportunities for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

Srinagar, February 6
Kashmir Solidarity Day, which Pakistan observed every year on February 5 to show its support for the separatist movement in Kashmir, may have elicited a loud response there but hardly had any resonance in the valley.

At a time when the separatists' standing has hit a sudden low after successful assembly elections, all they could manage was a few seminars where they spoke the usual homilies. "We will have to continue with our struggle. It will bear fruit," Hurryat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said at a seminar in Rajbagh.

Although all separatist groups issued statements affirming their dedication for struggle and lauding Pak's support for it, there was hardly any echo in the streets here. "The support for Pakistan among Kashmiris has declined over the years. One should not assume that people's anger against the prevailing order translates automatically into support for Pakistan," Shabir Dar, a Kashmir University student, said.

Even a section of the separatists feels that their pro-Pakistan stand has only weakened their strength among masses. "We have to chart our own course for the welfare of masses and our political future. There has to be an independent ideology government completely by the dictates of people not by outside powers," Javed Mir, a former JKLF commander-turned-Hurriyat politician, said.

Jammu, February 6
Governor NN Vohra has summoned the Legislative Assembly session at 10 am in Jammu on February 25.

He will address both Houses at the Central Hall of the Legislature building, Jammu, 
the same day at 11.30 am.

After the address, each House will meet separately at the time specified by the Speaker or the chairman, as the case may be.

Meanwhile, as per the bulletin issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly secretariat, Jammu, all members of the Assembly had been requested to send not more than five starred and un-starred questions each and five Bills by or before February 14.

Jammu, Feburary 6
The International Centre for Cross-Cultural Research and Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Studies, Jammu University, hosted a two-day HR conference on ‘Cross-Cultural Management Practice and Research’ here today. Two technical sessions were held during the day on ‘Bridging the Cultural Divide in a Flat World - The Challenges’ and ‘Cross-Cultural Issues in Affect, Cognition and Behavior: Impact on People Management’.

Vice-Chancellor Varun Sahni was the chief guest while Prof Ahad M Osman Gani from Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore was the guest of honour in the function. Academicians, practitioners, scholars, students and members of civil society attended the conference. — TNS