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Rather presents Rs 9,503-cr
vote-on-account
Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather reaches the Assembly in Jammu to present the interm budget on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph
Model code of conduct comes into force
Class XII state board exams begin
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Students, teachers differ over central status to JU
Killing of Two Youths in Army Firing
Oppn stages walkout from Assembly
CBI examines Military
Farm records
State can’t decide on free passage to foreign ultras
Global skiing derby ends
Services of ReT teachers to regularised
Hindi play staged
6 killed as vehicle falls into nullah
Woman dies in hospital
Dowry death triggers protest
NCLP to open schools
Workshop on groundwater ends
New GOC of 14 Corps takes charge
Students’ body calls on VC
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Rather presents Rs 9,503-cr
vote-on-account
Jammu, March 3 Rather also presented revised estimates for 2008-09 estimated at Rs 19,077 crore against the Budget estimates of Rs 18,443 crore. Rather said out of a total sum of Rs 9,503 crore, Rs 6,153 crore comprise non-plan expenditure, Rs 2,100 crore state plan expenditure, Rs 750 crore under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan and Rs 500 crore as expenditure under centrally sponsored schemes. Till the Lok Sabha election the full Budget has been deferred, but to ensure developmental works go on smoothly so as to benefit the people, we had no choice than to present vote-on-account, he said. Rather said the total receipts during the current year were estimated at Rs 19,077 crore against the Budget estimates of Rs 18,443 crore. He said out of Rs 19,077 crore, Rs 15,812 crore had been estimated as revenue receipt, while the capital receipts aggregate to Rs 3,265 crore. He said against the projected expenditure of Rs 18,443 crore, the revised estimates of expenditure were assessed at Rs 19,077 crore inclusive of plan expenditure of Rs 4,500 crore. Bringing to the fore a shackled state economy and a grim picture of key sectors like tourism, industries and other trades, he said, the full Budget in July or August would be a vision document of the coalition government. He, however, maintained that during this interregnum till the Lok Sabha elections were over, the government would continue with recruitment process and shall not allow the pace of development to slacken. On sixth pay panel recommendations, he said despite extremely precarious fiscal health of the state, the government had committed to implement the recommendations from July 1. On revising minimum wages of unskilled daily wagers, he said decision on this account would be taken in due course. |
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Model code of conduct comes into force
Jammu, March 3 Subsequently, the MCC and all instructions issued by the Election Commission under it, are to be strictly followed by all concerned in the state, stated the official communication. |
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Class XII state board exams begin
Jammu, March 3 He said in order to have complete check on cheating cases the board had constituted a three-tier security system. Professor Desh Bhandu, chairman, State Board of School Education, said they had constituted a vigilance team called three-tier security to restrain students from indulging into cheating. These teams are super checking team, cross checking team and regular checking team. Besides these teams, chief education officer, director and principal of the school are the higher authorities who would supervise these teams, said Prof Desh Bhandu. He said they had also opened a helpline through which anyone who find any student indulged in cheating could send complaints and accordingly teams would take immediate action against the guilty. The other purpose of the helpline is to provide solution to the student queries. Prof Bhandu said a yellow team was also established by the authorities to punish the students who were caught doing cheating. Not only the students, but also if vigilance staff is found guilty, they, too, would be given punishment by the team. Though the school authorities conducted extra classes, the level of stress among the students was high due to the late completion of the syllabus. Students had lost their precious time due to two months closure of schools over the Amarnath land row.
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Students, teachers differ over central status to JU
Jammu, March 3 Political parties have also been expressing their views over the issue and they foresee socio-economic development of the region with the establishment of a separate central varsity. Some student associations think it will be better if a central university is established as they believe that Jammu University cannot grow or expand. The Jammu University Teachers Association (JUTA) reasons that the varsity has already established liaisons with several national and international institutions of research and education and it will be better if it gets the central status. NK Tripathi, president of the JUTA, argues for granting the central status to Jammu University on the basis of the “availability of infrastructure, qualified faculty, national and international collaborations that help in the placement of students”. He cautions that if a separate varsity is established, Jammu University might turn into a fringe university, and thus rendering waste investment made during the last 40 years. President of Progressive Students Association Rahul echoes similar views and says instead of setting up another institution, the existing varsity should be consolidated. “Our varsity is facing space constraint as some of its area has been encroached upon,” he maintains and asked the Army to evacuate varsity’s land that it is allegedly occupying. Expressing similar views, state secretary of the ABVP Suresh Magotra says, “The central varsity status should be given to Jammu University. It requires extra space for opening new departments for which the university areas that have been encroached be vacated. If another varsity comes into existence, Jammu University will lose its importance and sanctity.” However, founder member of the Sangarsh Movement Vikrant Sharma argues that Jammu University has no scope for expansion and consolidation due to land and resource constraints. “A new varsity is likely to create more job avenues in the state where unemployment is a vexed problem. It will also ensure socio-economic development of the area where it is established,” he opines. Jammu University Research Scholars Executive Association president Vikas Sharma argues that Jammu University has scarce resources and facilities at its disposal and therefore cannot grow. “A new varsity will be in a position to offer more courses, besides more students and researchers intake capacity,” he says.
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Killing of Two Youths in Army Firing
Srinagar, March 3 Locals have formed a coordination committee to head the agitation. Its leader, Hakeem-ul Rehman, said they would sit on fast and block the highway tomorrow if their demands were not met. He said they had given a deadline which would end today. Though educational institutions across the 10 districts of Kashmir opened yesterday following a two-month-long winter vacation, villagers said their wards would not go to schools. They have demanded action against the guilty soldiers, and many have also asked for removal of the army camp. Calls for relocation of paramilitary forces from educational institutes have also been aired. Education Department officials said the schools in these villages remained shut but they were working to break the impasse. The state government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the killing of youths on January 21, directing the inquiry officer to finish the probe in 15 days. The Army claimed that two youths were killed in crossfire as its soldiers exchanged bullets with militants, but locals have summarily dismissed its version. “As long as soldiers enjoy immunity under the Armed Forces Special Power Act, this inquiry too would be an eyewash. There are many cases lodged against soldiers but they are hardly prosecuted,” Bashir Ahmad, a local, said. Jolted by the killing, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah recently promised in the Assembly for working to withdraw the AFSPA from the state but his Cabinet minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, made it clear yesterday that the authority for it vested with the central government. |
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Oppn stages walkout from Assembly
Jammu, March 3 The PDP, BJP and the Panthers Party created ruckus in the House before staging a walkout. Responding to a query of Jugal Kishore (BJP) and Sofi Abdul Gaffar(PDP), Rather said that the Cabinet had issued an order on February 19 to implement the revised pay from July 1, 2009. He admitted that work had been affected in government offices because of frequent strikes and to break the stalemate the government, despite having a feeble economy, decided to dole out benefits of the pay panel. Jugal confronted Rather, saying that “the government has not issued any formal order in black and white.” Gaffar wanted to know from where the government would meet the huge expenditure of Rs 3800-crore arrears and Rs 1380 crore of recurring expenditure every year. BJP’s Ashok Khajuria, too, was keen on knowing about the arrears (Rs 3800 crore) the government has to reimburse with effect from January 1, 2006. Chaman Lal Gupta (BJP) drew attention of the Chair towards daily-wagers, ad-hoc and contractual employees. “They are also employees of the government and I want to know what has been decided about them,” he said. Responding to a barrage of queries, Rather said: “I candidly admit that the government is not in a position to reimburse such a whopping amount but the revised pay would be given from July 1. The issue of arrears (Rs 3800 crore) has been taken up with the union government and we are hopeful of getting the funds”. He said that daily wagers, too, would get revised salaries from July 1 this year payable in August. However, the efforts of Rather and Speaker Mohammed Akbar Lone went in vain as the entire Opposition resorted to brief sloganeering before staging a walkout. |
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CBI examines Military
Farm records
Jammu, March 3 The sources said tonnes of fodder meant for cattle and mules had been found missing or of poor quality. Even some head of cattle had been found missing. The CBI team has reportedly seized documents and questioned some Army officers. SP, CBI, MK Bhatt said the verification of records was
on.However, Army sources said not much should be read into the visit of the CBI team. They said the CBI had verified the allegations earlier also, but no charges were made out. |
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State can’t decide on free passage to foreign ultras
Jammu, March 3 The Chief Minister had yesterday said 800 militants were still active in the state and 70 per cent of them were foreigners. If the foreign militants wanted to return, they could be given a safe passage, he had added. However, the security experts say the Army cannot directly provide a safe passage to the foreign militants. They will have to shun the gun and surrender before the police and only than the governments of both nations can decide on the issue. Speaking to The Tribune, former DGP MM Khajooria said, “The decision to give a safe passage has to be taken by the political establishments of both India and Pakistan.” However, he doubted that Pakistan, which has been claiming that the ongoing insurgency in Kashmir was an indigenous struggle of the Kashmiri people, would acknowledge its nationals were fighting in Kashmir. “Pakistan has always denied the presence of its nationals in the state and if it allows the foreign terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir to return to Pakistan, it would be exposed,” Khajooria said, adding that at various occasions Pakistan had refused to even accept the bodies of its nationals. A senior defence officer said the ongoing lull in the militancy-related violence in the state could be associated with a decline in the number of terrorists. He apprehended that the violence level could go up once the militants regroup. “It has been observed that the decline in violence is associated with the decline in number of terrorists, and if they get a chance to regroup violence could increase,” he said.
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Global skiing derby ends
Gulmarg, March 3 RK Gupta, secretary of the federation, said the participation of local, domestic and foreign players in the two-day festival was an encouraging step in this direction. He said a number of events, including ice-skating training course for the local and national level trainees would also be held from next year. Various other camps are also being organised as part of the new measures to attract more and more sports lovers to this tourist spot. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah inaugurated the global event here yesterday. The second phase of the winter games include the National Snow Rugby Championship from March 7, in which 25 teams from 14 states are participating. There would also be Gondola Skiing Cup in the third week of March, said CEO, Gulmarg Development Authority. Earlier in the skiing and boarding final games conducted at Kongdoori, Gulmarg, today, in which five teams qualified for the final match. Mushtaq Ahmad Magray of J&K team bagged the first prize in skiing competition, while Stanzen Faknoor and Rengchan Dawa of High Altitude Warfare School, India secured second and third positions, respectively. In boarding competition, Tim Rees of Wales, Kiril Ivavov Stoynov of Bulgaria and Niel Rullen Mead of Australia took first, second and third berths, respectively.
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Services of ReT teachers to regularised
Jammu, March 3 Responding to supplementary queries here today, Peerzada said the salary of the ReT teachers in primary schools had been put on the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Package up to March 2009. Their salary would be made out of the state plan from April 2009 and as such the services of all ReT teachers in primary schools would be regularised from April 2009. He also informed the House that from 2002-03 till date, 4,988 primary schools had been upgraded to high and higher secondary levels. Peerzada further said the schools upgraded from 2002 to 2005 had already been provided with requisite staff and posts for the schools upgraded from 2005 to 2007 had been created recently. The requisite staff was being deployed in these schools, he added. The minister, however, said the schools upgraded from 2007 till date were at present functioning by internal adjustment of staff. He added that a proposal for the creation of posts of teaching and non-teaching staff in these schools was under process in the Finance Department. Peerzada admitted that there was a good number of schools, which were deficient in infrastructure, and the deficiencies were being addressed in a phased manner, depending upon the availability of resources. On another query, he said in the class X examination in 2007, 22 schools in the winter zone registered zero per cent results, while in 2008 the number of such schools was 24. Replying to a question by DPN’s Ghulam Hassan Mir on behalf of MY Tarigami regarding the poor performance of the winter zone schools in class X annual exam in 2007 and 2008, Peerzada said the number of such schools was 156. After Opposition members from the BJP and the Panthers Party expressed dissatisfaction, the Speaker said a 30-minute discussion would be held in the House during the session to provide members with an opportunity to raise the issues pertaining to education.
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Hindi play staged
Jammu, March 3 Vijay Bakaya, former chief secretary and MLC was the chief guest whereas the programme was presided over by Savita Bakshi, additional secretary, JKAACL. The play depicted the situation when the home instead of being a symbol of safety and security turned into dangerous zone and when the protector transforms into a deadly assailant. Moving far ahead of domestic violence and rape, this play was about the slow, painful death of the human values. Savita Bakshi said the academy had scheduled number of national-level programme in the field of folk dances of different states. |
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6 killed as vehicle falls into nullah Udhampur, March 3 “A Tata Sumo, which was on its way from Jammu to Srinagar, skidded off the road when the driver failed to negotiate a sharp turn near Ramsoo in Ramban and fell into a nullah around 9 pm”, SSP, Ramban, Sunil Dutt told the Tribune. The SSP informed that rescue teams had been rushed to the spot. “The deceased are yet to be identified”, he said. Reports said the driver lost control over the vehicle while overtaking a truck on the highway and the Tata Sumo rolled down into the nullah. Police and Army personnel rushed to the spot and started rescue operations. “Six passengers died on the spot and their bodies were fished out. One of the critically injured was shifted to the Banihal hospital,” the police said.
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Woman dies in hospital
Jammu, March 3 The 24-year-old woman had been operated upon for postpartum hemorrhoids by gynaecologists at the hospital and had slipped into DIC (when blood stops clotting). Her kidneys, too, had started malfunctioning. Rekha’s husband Pawan Kumar said doctors’ negligence resulted in the death of his wife. “I would lodge an FIR with the police against the doctors”, he said. “She had a normal delivery on February 27. But after two hours, I was asked to arrange blood units. They then took my wife to the operating theatre saying she had developed some complication, as bleeding had not stopped,” said Pawan. He added, subsequently, the doctors told me that her uterus had to be removed to save her and she was operated upon again. She had been unconscious since yesterday. “I fail to understand when my wife had a normal delivery, how she developed complications. It’s a clear case of doctors’ negligence,” he said. However, the administrator of the Government Medical College and associated hospitals, Jammu, Dr Rakesh Khajuria, who holds the additional charge of the SMGS Hospital, described it a complicated case. Despite best efforts of our doctors, the woman died today. Over 20 units of blood were given to save her life and she had been kept on a ventilator. But her condition continued to deteriorate and she died this afternoon, he said. “Our doctors tried their best. But if the family wants to lodge a complaint with the police, how can we stop them,” he said.
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Dowry death triggers protest
Udhampur, March 3 The agitators lifted the blockade only after senior police officers rushed to the spot and arrested the husband of Madhu, who died in Jammu late last evening. Madhu, daughter of Rattan Lal of Magaini village, allegedly consumed some poisonous substance at the house of her in-laws three days back. Due to the deterioration of her condition she was referred to Jammu for treatment where she breathed her last. This morning villagers reached Bhatti village of Madhu’s in-laws and blamed husband Sandeep Kumar for the death of Madhu. They took away the body and marched towards Rambhal. Shouting slogans against the police for not taking action against Sandeep Kumar, villagers blocked the highway for more than three hours. Agitating people alleged that Madhu was poisoned by her husband as he had been repeatedly demanding dowry from the family. The blockade was lifted only after the police arrested the husband. The body of Madhu was later cremated. |
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NCLP to open schools
Udhampur, March 3 This was informed by project director, NCLP, Udhampur, Rampal Choudhary, during a review meeting called by the Udhampur DC to review progress of the NCLP project in the district. During the meeting the project director apprised the DC that the locations of 10 NCLP schools have been identified personally by the committee members. The DC approved all 10 NCLP schools during the meeting. The appointment of staff shall be made in NCPL schools as per the norms of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and IV class employees shall be appointed as per the rules of helpers who would be appointed in the ICDS projects. |
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Workshop on groundwater ends
Jammu, March 3 Arun Kumar, Regional Director, touched upon the problems related to groundwater in various areas. The main objective of the workshop was awareness creation and information dissemination. After the inaugural session, technical sessions were held and lectures were delivered by scientists/engineers of various departments. The workshop concluded with the presentation of an approach paper on ‘Enhancement of water use efficiency’. |
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New GOC of 14 Corps takes charge
Srinagar, March 3 Commissioned in the Eighth Gorkha Rifles, the new incumbent has had varied command and staff tenures, which include the command of the prestigious Siachen Brigade and a division in the valley deployed along the Line of Control. He has also been the head of the General Staff of a vital command HQ, where from, he has moved on promotion to the present appointment. Lt Gen VK Ahluwalia, credited with the exemplary conduct of the World Military Games in 2007, had been posted to Delhi in an equally prestigious appointment, the spokesman said. |
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Students’ body calls on VC
Jammu, March 3 A delegation of eight students led by founder of the association Ranjeet Sharma today called on vice-chancellor Prof Varun Sahni discussed several demands with him. As of now, out of 30 departments at campus, 29 department representatives have been elected for the indirect elections of the researcher body. Earlier, the elections had to be held on February 10, but they were deferred, as there was dispute over the selection of department representatives from department of Mathematics. Sharma said the association demanded increase in number of beneficiaries in research work of MPhill and PhD. He further sought paid online journals at computer labs of different departments. “We asked vice-chancellor that university should sponsor the scholars selected for paper presentation at All-India Conference,” he said and added that administration should implement its circular that makes attendance of research scholar mandatory from next academic year onwards.
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Jammu, March 3
Jammu, March 3
Jammu, March 3
