Jammu, April 4
The lift irrigation schemes that irrigate 22.83 thousand hectare of cultivable land in the state have been executed in an unplanned manner and are lingering on for more than 20 years in many cases.

The irrigation potential created has not been fully utilised, adversely affecting the contribution of the lift irrigation schemes.

The construction work and maintenance of these schemes is vested with the state Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

As per official records, the schemes irrigate 7 per cent of the cultivable land in the state. Scrutiny revealed that the department concerned did not frame any perspective plan with regard to the construction work under these schemes.

Various schemes were taken up without setting priorities and as a result a number
of schemes remained incomplete despite being under construction for the past
between 20 and 26 years.

For providing irrigation facilities to 32 villages with a command cultivable area of 12,000 acres, the executive engineer, Irrigation Department, Akhnoor, had incurred (March 2004) an expenditure of Rs 44.17 lakh on survey work for the construction of the lift irrigation scheme at Ambran and this included Rs 38 lakh paid (June 2003) to a firm, WAPCOS, for the preparation of a detailed project report.

The report was sent after a lapse of six months to the Central Power Research Station, Khadakwasla, Pune, to have a model study of the scheme.

The department did not take any follow up action to get the model study
conducted, causing the investment of Rs 44.17 lakh remain unfruitful for more
than four years.

The official records state that out of 30 schemes under execution, seven schemes
that were due for completion between 2000-01 and 2006-07 had not been
completed due to dispute over land, link alignment, insufficient water sources,
non-completion of civil works, non-procurement, installation of machinery and
inadequate funds.

The department’s failure in resolving key issues relating to these schemes resulted in an unfruitful expenditure of Rs 4.27 crore, besides non-provision of irrigation facilities to 2,128 acres.

There were 42 schemes under execution during 2003-08, and out of which only 12 were completed during the period.

Of the remaining 30 schemes, 19 suffered on account of frequent change of design and alignment, execution of works at a slow pace, incorporation of additional items or work not envisaged in the original estimates, non-provision of funds, which resulted in time and cost overrun.

The time overrun ranged between one and 31 years (19 schemes), while cost overrun ranged up to Rs 33.86 crore.

The records revealed that cost overrun of three medium (Tral, Rafiabad, Rajpora) schemes was Rs 92.44 crore and the schemes were under execution for the past 20-26 years.

Udhampur, April 4
Due to the non-availability of additional forces, the authorities have decided to make “strategic placement” of the available forces to conduct free and fair elections in erstwhile Doda district.

They have declared 200 polling booths as hyper sensitive. Conducting elections peacefully in the mountainous belt of erstwhile Doda district is the biggest challenge before the security forces because after the Kashmir valley, some areas of the belt are still plagued with militancy.

Amid reports that some militants have managed to sneak into this belt to sabotage electioneering, the local authorities have declared 200 polling stations as hyper sensitive and decided to take effective steps to ensure that people could exercise their right to franchise without fear.

“As the election process has been simultaneously going on in all over the country so the availability of additional forces for Doda and Kishtwar districts is not possible. So our priority would be to make minimum use of forces available at our command”, DIG, Doda-Ramban range, Hemant Kumar Lohia told The Tribune.

“We have singled out some polling booths, where the deployment of forces is must”, he said, adding that, “internal mobilisation and strategic placement would be made on sensitive spots to frustrate evil designs of the militants”.

The security agencies have taken extra precautionary measures due to recent encounters in Kishtwar district. Recently two encounters took place in Kishtwar district in which six militants were killed.

Meanwhile, the authorities have started imparting electronic voting machine (EVM) training to the staff on election duty.

Today, 1,700 presiding officers and polling officers were imparted training by the master trainers under the supervision of assistant returning officers of Udhampur, Chenani and Ramnagar in their respective tehsil headquarters.

Today 600 presiding and polling officers each of Udhampur and Ramnagar and 500 of Chenani tehsils were imparted training.

The master trainers, who gave practical demonstration on the use of EVMs, including two component control and ballot unit.

Udhampur, April 4
To discuss issues relating to the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, in which the Udhampur parliamentary constituency is going to polls on April 23, District Election Officer (DEO), Udhampur, Ajay Khajuria convened a meeting of the representatives of different political parties here today.

Udhampur SSP Surinder Gupta, Additional Deputy Commissioner NI Parae and Assistant Commissioner, Revenue, Rajesh Sharma also attended the meeting.

The DEO gave a detailed account of various issues pertaining to the conduct of the Lok Sabha elections like observance of model code of conduct, status of electoral rolls, EPICs, polling stations, list of booth-level officers (BLOs) etc. to the representatives of political parties.

They were advised to go through the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI) carefully and ensure strict compliance of the instructions in respect of holding of meetings, processions and adherence to the restrictions on the polling day.

Regarding the status of EPICs, the DEO disclosed that the EPICs have been distributed to the electors through the BLOs concerned and added that some alternate documents have also been recommended by the ECI to be produced in place of EPICs for verification of the identity of the voter. The list of these alternate documents is being supplied to the political parties.

Regarding the demand of list of polling stations and booth-level officers made by the political parties, the DEO directed the officers concerned to provide copies thereof at the earliest.

Shoaib Lone was later elected as an Independent candidate from Sangrama, the constituency represented by his father, Dr Ghulam Nabi Lone. But, he lost to the PDP candidate, Basharat Bukhari in the last Assembly elections.

Srinagar, April 4
A meeting of the coordination committee of the two coalition partners, the Congress and the National Conference, to discuss issues related to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, including candidature and joint campaign, was held here today.

Union Minister for Water Resources and state president of the Congress Saifuddin Soz accompanied by senior party leaders, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma held the meeting with the NC leaders at the Gupkar residence of National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah.

Other members of the NC included Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister AR Rather and MLA Sakina Ittoo. “The meeting discussed issues related to the elections, candidatures and campaign during these elections,” sources said.

While the electoral process for the Jammu and Udhampur constituencies has
already been set into motion, the candidature for the Ladakh constituency is yet
to be disclosed.

“There will be a Congress candidate for Ladakh, whose name would be finalised
after consultations with the party high command in a couple of days,” sources in
the party said.

Soz left here for Jammu later in the day while he would be flying to New Delhi tomorrow where the candidature for Ladakh would be finalised.

The sources added that it had already been decided by the two parties as per the seat sharing arrangement.

Each of the two parties would be contesting three seats in the state, with the Congress contesting from Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh, and the NC from Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla constituencies.

The NC is yet to disclose the candidates for the valley seats, where polling is scheduled to be held in the last three phases of the five-phased elections.

However, Farooq Abdullah said discussion with the Congress over the candidate for the Ladakh constituency was going on and no final decision had been taken as yet.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had here recently stated that talks on the issue were on in view of the “local sensitivities” prevalent in Ladakh region.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Farooq Abdullah said his party would be working with its coalition partner for the uplift and equal development of all three regions of the state.

He criticised the “misleading” stand of the PDP leader and former Chief Minister
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Kathua, April 4
With 15 more candidates filing nomination papers on the last day today, the total number of candidates, who have filed nomination papers for the Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, has reached 21.

The candidates, who filed their papers today, included Dr Nirmal Singh of the BJP, Ghulam Qadir Wani of the Samajwadi Party, Rajiv Sharma of the All J&K Mazdoor Party, Bishan Dass of the Bharatiya Bahujan Party, Kanchan Sharma, covering candidate of the Bharatiya Bahujan Party, Adrees Ahmad Tabassum of the CPI, Rakesh Wazir of the BSP, Sonia Wazir, covering candidate of the BSP, Master William Gill of the All India Forward Bloc and Dev Raj, Nek Mohammed, Mohammed Yousuf, Naresh Dogra, Vishal Sharma and Atul Sharma, all Independents.

Six candidates had already filed nomination papers for the seat. They include Lal Singh of the Congress, Bhim Singh of the Panthers Party, Rajesh Manchanda of the Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party, Balbir Singh of the PDP, Anil Kumar of the Lok Janshakti Party and Bodh Raj of the Backward Classes Democratic Party.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers shall be held on April 6, while April 8 is the last date for the withdrawal of candidature.

The Udhampur-Doda constituency comprising 17 Assembly segments spread over six districts of Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban and Reasi is going to the polls on April 23 in the second phase.

“Any attempt to remove it would adversely affect the relations between Delhi and Srinagar”, he said at the party workers’ meeting here today.

Srinagar, April 4
Tulip Garden today played host to blooming buds as children of the Srinagar chapter of the Life Help Centre for Child Care, Chennai, visited the garden.

Thirty-three children of the centre set up for the mentally challenged along with centre head P. Rajan and the staff visited the garden. The children enjoyed every bit of their outing and left visitors to garden mesmerised at their joy.

“It was wonderful and the garden was full of flowers. We enjoyed each and every moment of our picnic and the outing was great,” saiy Irfan Shakeel, a student.

Spelling out colours of flowers, Basika Bilal, student of primary first, said these were of red, blue, orange and other colours.

“At the garden, I sang a few songs and enjoyed my company with teachers, especially Suja mam,” said the cute student hailing from Kawdara.

Zubair Khan, a student of Aloochi Bagh, said the students boarded buses and went to the garden.

“During our journey, we had fun in buses and I along with my friends sang songs,”
said Zubair.

He while pointing towards the photos of tulips on a calendar said, “We went there.” Inderveer, Adil and Abid joined Zubair and they were overwhelmed by the outing.

Mudasir, monitor of children, said children behaved in a right manner without causing any damage to flowers at the garden.

“Some children are hyperactive and we were worried about their behaviour at the garden. These children behaved well and did not do anything awry,” said Suraya, office secretary-cum-accountant at the office.

Naseema and Sujada Wani, teachers at the centre, said they received phone calls from parents of hyperactive children constantly.

“It was a surprise for the parents when they came to know that their children behaved in a normal way,” said the teachers. 

Jammu, March 4
A Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court set aside the judgment dated November 20, 2007, convicting and sentencing appellant Dhoop Singh to rigorous life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10, 000 for the murder of Shankari Devi.

The Bench remanded the case to the Trial Court for fresh examination and further ordered retrial of the case efficiently.

According to prosecution, Shankari Devi, though married to Bhag Singh about
20 years ago, did not have a cordial relationship with him and later they started
living separately.

Later, Bhag Singh adopted Dhoop Singh, his brother’s son, who started putting up with him and cultivating his land.

Dhoop Singh conspired with Bhag Singh to grab the land under the possession of Shankari Devi and had beaten her with the handle of his pickaxe and then tied her with a rope with a pillar of his house where she later succumbed to injuries.

The Bench observed that the manner in which the Trial Court had proceeded to examine the appellant demonstrates complete obliviousness of the learned Judge to the true spirit.

“ Appellant’s retrial becomes necessary because the Trial Court has failed to
apprise the evidence of the prosecution witnesses in coming to the conclusion
as to whether or not their statements were believable and in recording positive
findings about the proof or otherwise of circumstances leading to the appellant’s
guilt or innocence.”

Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the weapon of offence stated to have been used by the appellant, and appellant’s incarceration for more than seven years, the Division Bench admitted the appellant to bail during his further trial, on his furnishing personal recognizance and recognizance of a surety for an amount of Rs. 5000 each to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.

Jammu, April 4
With an objective to enhance the performance of students in the Common Entrance Test (CET), the J&K Board of School Education (BOSE) is set to start a crash course for the aspirants of medical and engineering entrance exams.

The selection of students would be made on the percentage of their marks obtained in the secondary school examination.

Though the BOSE started this practice goodwill gesture way back in 2007, this year it has been increasing the number of seats up to 200 from the existing 125.

“The admission process would start soon after the examination of the higher
secondary students are over in the second week of this month,” secretary,
Education, GA Peer said.

“Aspiring students or their parents can come to the BOSE office for their queries and collection of forms. Selection of students would be made as soon as possible,” the secretary education said.

He added that besides higher secondary and college lecturers, some professors from the universities would also be coming for teaching the classes.

The fee for the open category students would be Rs 4,000 and Rs 3,000 for the reserved category students.

Chairman, BOSE, Prof Desh Bandu said the coaching classes would be held in all subjects, including physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.

Such a course has already started in the Kashmir division as higher secondary examination got over in the month of December.

Meanwhile, the National Secular Forum (NSF) has urged BOSE to hike quota of beneficiaries from the existing number.

Jammu, April 4
The police has arrested a boy for allegedly murdering his 12-year-old cousin in Sidhra, on the outskirts of the city, near here.

A senior police officer said Asif Iqbal, a standard IV student of Cosmo Public School in Sidhra, went missing from his house in Sidhra under mysterious circumstances on March 27.

His parents filed a complaint with Sidhra police post on March 28. However, Asif’s body was recovered from the basement of an under-construction hall in Tawi Vihar Colony near Sidhra last evening, the officer said.

He said getting vital clues during the course of investigations, Asif’s first cousin Zaffar Ali, 16, a standard IX student of Environmental School in Sidhra, was grilled.

Zaffar confessed to his crime and divulged that he used to sexually abuse Asif,
said the officer.

“Zaffar told us that on March 27 he, in an inebriated condition, took Asif to the under-construction hall and forced him to have sex,” the officer said, adding that Asif refused and threatened the accused that he would inform his parents.

Fearing the wrath of his family, Zaffar hit Asif with a brick and the latter died instantly, said the officer. The case has been converted into Section 302, RPC, from Section, 174, Cr PC.

The bizarre incident has shocked the people of Sidhra, while Asif’s father Mohammed Iqbal and his wife were in a state of shock.

During search of the vehicle 684 litres of Kerosene oil being illegally transported from Samba to Jammu was seized.

The driver of the auto-rickshaw has been identified as Chaman Lal Sharma of Gurha Morh Bakshi Nagar.