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Traffic snarls disrupt life in city
LS polls: Students to make their presence felt
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Cross-LoC bus brings nostalgic moments for divided families
A Tribute
Gojri music popular across border
Flower show on March 22
Speaking Out
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Traffic snarls disrupt life in city
Jammu, March 13 According to sources, the state government has not initiated worthwhile measures to get rid of the traffic snarls and deaths in the road mishaps. Moreover, the problem has started gaining dangerous proportions in the temple city in the wake of the understaffed traffic police department. Though, the strength of the traffic police department has increased to 1,000 odd personnel from 350 in 1982, the increase in road-lengths has remained almost negligible, they added. Talking to The Tribune, IGP traffic police Mohammed Amin Shah said a small portion of the requisite manpower of 1,500 personnel has been given to the Traffic Police Department of late but the major portion is yet to come. Candidly admitting that the city has witnessed population explosion in the last few years, the IGP said to tackle the traffic problem, road network has to be laid and existing roads have to be widened, besides coming up with more flyovers and parking lots. “For regulating the traffic smoothly, we should also have traffic lights at the key crossings,” he added. However, he felt that the Roads and Buildings Departments, Jammu Municipal Corporation, Jammu development authority, Regional Transport Authority and Transport Department, should also contribute their bit. Traffic police, having a total strength of approximately 1,000 personnel, could not do wonders in a state where 30,000 to 40,000 new vehicles add to the fleet every year, he said. “At present, Jammu alone has over 4 lakh vehicles and to regulate the traffic, every department should play its role. Unless we raise the infrastructure on a war-footing, the situation would worsen further. The departments like JMC and JDA should also remove encroachments, at least from the footpaths and other vantage points,” he added. It may be stated here that from time to time the state High Court had issued directives to the state government to improve messy traffic scenario in the capital city. Places that give nightmarish experience to the daily commuters, including the schoolchildren and the office-goers, include the Bikram Chowk, the Jewel Chowk, the Canal Road, the New Plot- Janipur Road, the Rehari Chungi-Sarwal- Patoli Road, the Parade Ground, the Kachi Chawni, the Shalamar Road, the Ambphalla, the Maheshpura Chowk, the BC Road, the Railway Station Road, the Gole Market Gandhi Nagar, Sanjay Nagar in Shastri Nagar, the Satwari Chowk, the Talab Tillo Bohri, the Indira Chowk, the KC Morh, Purani Mandi, the Kanak Mandi, the Residency Road and the Gumat Bazar Road.
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LS polls: Students to make their presence felt
Jammu, March 13 While some of the student organisations have decided to openly criticise the political parties for their faults, others have decided to educate electorate and rest of them have decided to vigorously campaign for the party candidates in the run-up for poll fray. The Progressive Students Association (PSA) has already started with its efforts to create awareness regarding its agenda “democratise the democracy.” President of the association, Rahul, revealed that they have planned street plays, poster campaigns, seminars and other programmes to encourage people for asking questions to their political representatives. “It is unto voter to decide to whom he has to choose. Our thrust would be upon making them believe that politicians are no supernatural creatures, they are one amongst us and they are accountable to us.” ABVP state secretary Suresh Ajay Magotra said the student organisation was not offshoot of any political party and therefore, it won’t campaign for any party. Denying any linkage with the BJP, he said, “The ABVP came into existence in 1949 while the BJP was constituted in 1985.” “We believe in student activism but that does not make us apolitical. We call upon people to vote at their own to strengthen democracy by participating into the biggest festival of democracy,” he said. State president of the National Student Union of India (NSUI) Rashid Choudhary sounds enthusiastic over election campaign. “We are going to campaign for the Congress and in this regard we are going to hold a state-level convention at Jammu by the month end,” he revealed. He further said, “In the proposed convention a document containing achievement of the UPA government will also be released, along with students’ manifesto. We are also looking forward to constitute committees at the gross-root level for door-to-door campaigns.” However, the National Conference Students’ Union (NCSU) has still been waiting for some direction from the party high command. “We are going to organise a convention of our delegates to discuss several issues and chalking out policies. We will put all efforts to make the NC-Congress coalition government a success in the upcoming elections,” stated Vikrant Sharma, general secretary of the NCSU. |
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Cross-LoC bus brings nostalgic moments for divided families
Poonch, March 13
Talk to anyone in the euphoric crowd, majority of whom are members of divided families, bang comes the assertion that not only did the Partition divide a single nation but also the territorial boundaries separated the humanity. The Partition and the three wars between the two countries over Kashmir did nothing good but to divide brothers from sisters, parents from their children is the common sentiment among the crowd of predominantly divided family members. “The founders of Pakistan and India as two nations did nothing good to the people living on the either side. The worst thing they did was to divide the humanity. I am living here in India and just 50 km from here in PoK, my three brothers lived for 44 years after they got separated from me during the 1965 war, and we couldn’t meet each other,” said Muhammad Sadeeq of Sakhi Maidan in Mendhar, whose brother Nazeer Hussain, presently living in the Pang Piraan area of Kotli in PoK, left on the cross-LoC bus this week after he came here 28 days back on a travel document. “Though my brother stayed here for 28 days, when he was leaving I felt that someone has cut my body part and threw it away,” he murmured with tears rolling down his wrinkled cheeks. Nazeer Hussain, brother of Muhammad Sadeeq, became so much emotional that he couldn't speak much. He simply said, “The Partition didn't divide us from each other but separated our souls. It is very painful for family members to live in two countries”. “What a destiny we the divided families have come with? We never wanted this type of division that separates sisters from their brothers, sons and daughters from their parents. Those who engineered such division couldn’t reap much harvest but they committed biggest sin by dividing people,” said Abdul Ghani (65), a resident of this frontier district, who had applied for travel permit in May 2005, to visit Muzzafarabad in PoK but he is yet to get the same and in the meantime, he has lost 70 of his relatives there. “For the last about four years, I have been approaching the authorities to know the status of my permit application. I do go to the college stadium here quite often to send letters to my relatives and return with pain after seeing the visitors from PoK going back”. Poonch and Mendhar tehsils of this border districts have the highest percentage of divided families. According to an estimate, 60 per cent of the families living in these tehsils are divided ones. Every Monday, PoK returnees as well as Indian visitors leave from here on cross-LoC Poonch-Rawlakote bus whereas visitors from PoK and Indian returnees come here on the bus. The Poonch-Rawlakote bus service was started by India and Pakistan as a major confidence building measure in June 2006.
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A Tribute
Udhampur, March 13 In the words of Prof Lalit Magotra, president of the Dogri Sanstha, “The biggest achievement of Prof Ramnath Shastri was that he restored the dignity and honour of Dogras”. Dr Satyapal Shrivatsa, an eminent Sanskrit, Hindi and Dogri writer, while comparing Prof Shastri with eminent Hindi writer Bharatindu Harishchander, said “What Bharatindu had done for the modern Hindi literature, Prof Shastri did for Dogri culture and literature”. “He provided platform to the Dogri writers and led a movement for the restoration of the dignity and honour of the Dogri language and Dogras”, he said while terming Prof Shastri as the father of the Dogra renaissance movement. Prof Veena Gupta, head of the Dogri department of Jammu University, recalled Prof Shastri’s contribution in giving identity to Dogri language and Dogra culture. “Before Prof Shastri, there was Dogra folklore but no written literature. It was he who took initiated and started writing in Dogri”. Not only Prof Shastri himself started work in Dogri, he rather convinced some Hindi writers to write in Dogri to popularise the tongue. As there was no platform for Dogri writers at that time, Prof Shastri, along with six other writers, on the occasion of Basant Panchami in 1944, formed Dogri Sanstha. Quoting history, Prof Gupta said Prof Shastri, Denu Bhai Pant, BP Sathe, Narayan Mishra, Pt Sansar Chand Baru and DC Parshant formed Dogri Sanstha to provide a platform and to encourage Dogri writers. In the 18th and 19th centuries, some Dogri writers namely Devi Ditta, Ganga Ram, Ramdhan and Lakhu were very popular but no written literature was available of that time. It was only in the 20th century that writers started writing in Dogri. To popularise the Dogra culture, Prof Shastri along with other writers started staging plays in the rural areas and his step inspired a number of writers in rural belts to come forward. Being a revolutionary writer, Prof Shastri wrote about Dogra folk heroes namely Baba Jitto, Data Ranpat and Mian Diddoo who had fought against social evils and injustice. His play “Baba Jittoo” is the first play in Dogri which gave a new cultural identity to Jammu region. The play has already been featured in more than 10 national and international festivals and won many awards. The folktale written by Prof Shastri, portrays exploitation and miseries of landless farmers in 15th century. Prof Shastri got Sahitya Akademy Award for his one-act play “Chakdiya Kerna” and later another award for “Mitti De Gaddi”, the Dogri translation of a Sanskrit play. Prof Magotra, while terming him as the “storehouse of information” of Dogra culture and literature, said he had the capacity of good leader. His contemporary Dogri writers, Kehar Singh Madhukar, Vedpal Deep, Dinu Bhai Pant and Padhma Sachdev, worked under his leadership. “What Dogri literature, culture and language have achieved today is all due to the tireless efforts of Prof Shastri”, observed Prof Gupta and added that death of Prof Shastri marked the end of an era. |
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Gojri music popular across border
Jammu, March 13 “Even during the times of peace and proxy war, people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have been crazy about the Gojri music played over Radio Kashmir Jammu”, says Hassan Parvaz, in charge of the
Gojri section. He says the station receives a number of letters every week from the other side of the border, requesting for playing particular Gojri numbers. “Despite broadcasting one hour Gojri programme everyday, we feel short of time in accommodating every letter”, says Parvaz. He said even a delegation of poets from PoK that visited Jammu and Kashmir recently, had substantiated the popularity of the music played over Radio Kashmir Jammu since June 8, 1975. “Our singers like Bashir Mastana, Shabnam Akhtar, Poonchi Mohd Rafi, Noor Jehan and Ayaz Saif are very popular in PoK”, claims Rahi. He says since 40 per cent of Gojri speaking people live on the other side of the border, they have as such most of the things in common, including the traditional and
folk music. |
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Flower show on March 22
Jammu, March 13 Major participants in the show, besides general public, are drawn from the Army, paramilitary forces, educational institutes and industries. A large variety of flowers from a number of participants would be on display on the occasion. Entries for various categories are open up to March 22 till 9 am. |
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Speaking Out
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Letter
The recent incident of ragging where a student succumbed to his injuries in a medical institute in Himachal Pradesh has reminded me of several such incidences in Jammu colleges and university. Such incidents have been ignored and pushed under the carpet by the authorities. It might appear as a healthy initiation process for some, who had pleasant experience of ragging, but at times, it turns into ugly occurrences. I have seen boys hurling abuses and even stripping down the juniors in hostels. Not many are prepared to take this mental trauma. The physical beating is not new either when somebody retaliates against ragging. Surprisingly, such complaints are not taken seriously, neither by parents nor by higher-ups. In my view, it is the high time that educational institutions should follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court, which has been passing strictures against ragging time to time, before we have a tragedy in Jammu.
Ashish Kumar,
Jammu
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