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Drizzle brings worry for farmers
Mercury dips in Srinagar
Flesh Trade
Uncertainty, insecurity raising head again: Mufti
Cong nominee flays BJP
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200 teachers want to be airlifted
Mahavir Jayanti
Filthy canal water damages crops: Farmers
‘Tackle’ disasters professionally
Drive to check vehicle theft launched
Bus driver challaned
2 soldiers killed in Kupwara forests
Tribune Impact
Public schools charging hefty fee: Sena
PDP candidates for
Anantnag, Baramulla
Udhampur-Doda Nominations of six rejected
BJP flays clean chit to Tytler
Sikh bodies hold protest
Three Indians boarded bus to PoK
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Drizzle brings worry for farmers
Jammu, April 6 Late last night and today evening the region witnessed moderate drizzle after which the daytime temperature in the region has dropped with a few degrees. “Just a few days ago, it had become so hot that we thought that the summer season had arrived, but last nights rainfall that brought the temperature down has given us some relief,” said Alok Mangotra, a resident of Gandhi Nagar locality of Jammu. Officers in the Metrological Department say that the downpour is a result of western disturbances and the continuous rainfall for the past few days in the Kashmir valley. However, the rainfall has left the farmers in the various belts of Jammu in worry as they fear that if the rainfall continues for some more time, it could damage the standing wheat crop in their fields. “The crop is almost ready to be harvested a heavy downpour could spoil a majority of the standing crop, thus incurring huge losses to us. We had taken loan and are under dept of the bank, and we were waiting to harvest the crop to earn money and to pay back all my depts,” said Alok Kumar, a farmer from frontier village of RS Pura. The farmer community in this area was first worried due to the diseases like yellow rust and aphid that damaged a large chunk of their crop, but now they say that whatever crop has been left would also get damaged due to the downpour. Though the agricultural scientist say that a light drizzle would be in the best interest of the farmers in the region as it could wash away the spores of the aphid diseases that was posing threat for the standing crop, however, they warn that a heavy downpour in the region would not be in the best interest of the farmer fraternity as it could damage the standing as well as the cultivated crop kept in the open. Meanwhile, the officers in the metrological department say that if the disturbance continues the region might witness mild to heavy downpour, which could not be in the best interest of the farmers. “This drizzle is good as it has brought down the temperature in the region, one can tolerate the drizzle but not the scorching sun,” said Ankita Kotwal, a resident of Trikuta Nagar locality.
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Mercury dips in Srinagar
Srinagar, April 6 The Met Department said the maximum temperature in Srinagar today was 13.4°C, 5 degree less than the normal, while the minimum was 7.8°C, less than 1degree above normal. The fall in the maximum temperature meant that weather during the day remained wintry. Similar conditions prevailed across the valley and Qazigund in south Kashmir had extreme temperatures of 12°C and 6.5°C, while Kupwara in north Kashmir it ranged between 8.3°C and 6.4°C. Pehelgam remained among the coldest places with maximum and minimum temperatures of 9.8°C and 3.8°C, respectively. Met officials said the summer capital received rain of 4.1mm, while the precipitation was among the highest in Kupwara at 15.2 mm, measured between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm. The forecast for the coming days remains gloomy. Met officials say weather is expected to slightly clear up after April 8, as western disturbance hanging overhead will pass by then. However, conditions are likely to turn overcast again later. |
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Flesh Trade
Jammu, April 6 Though senior police officers were tight-lipped over the incident, official sources told The Tribune that the Trikuta Nagar police arrested Dr Shrivasta Virk (Sharma), a retired Army Captain, from house No. 13 in Sector 2, Trikuta Nagar extension, along with a 20-year-old girl and three boys. Acting on a tip-off, a Trikuta Nagar police party raided the house this afternoon and arrested Shrivasta, said the sources. They said the girl, who hailed from Srinagar, was at present putting up in Sidhra, on the outskirts of the temple city, near here. They were caught from the rented accommodation, said a police officer. The doctor was running the racket from the rented house and a few days back residents of the locality had asked him to desist from immoral activities, said the officer. However, the doctor paid no heed to their warnings and continued with the immoral activities, he added. Two of the three arrested boys have been identified as Gagan and Harmeet, both residents of Gadigarh. Though the girl has been identified, her identity has been withheld. The police officer said the doctor used to charge Rs 700 from every customer and give the girl Rs 500. He used to fix the deals calling customers on their cell phones, he added. “We expect more people, including girls, to be involved in the racket,
the officer said. Furthermore, the kingpin of the racket, Shrivasta, had not been able to provide any documentary proof of him being a doctor, said the officer. |
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Uncertainty, insecurity raising head again: Mufti
Srinagar, April 6 Addressing party workers the Mufti said though the people had participated much enthusiastically in the 2008 elections as compared to 2002, “lack of concrete political and economic agenda for governance, waning interest in the peace process and slowdown of the reconciliation process seem to be the major contributory factors towards the growing public cynicism”. The PDP leader pointed out that the people had already suffered immense physical and psychological agony during the two-decades of turmoil and they could not afford to undergo the trauma of such a wretched situation once again. The PDP patron held that Jammu and Kashmir was at the threshhold of far-reaching consequences and the occasion was appropriate for a meaningful breakthrough for the ultimate and amicable settlement of the issue. He said people of the state now yearned for security through development and not through arms. |
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Cong nominee flays BJP
Rajouri, April 6 BJP candidate Leela Karan Sharma addressing an election meeting here pledged to fight for the rights of people of Jammu who had been neglected by the successive Congress governments. — TNS |
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200 teachers want to be airlifted
Srinagar, April 6 One of the teachers, Zahoor Ahmad, said the Education Department had recently issued a circular, warning them of disciplinary action if they did not join by April 7. “It is as if we are to blame for the delay. We are most eager to join duty but are doing rounds of the government offices,” he said. The government depends upon the Army for airlifting facilities and teachers said only four flights to Kargil from Srinagar had taken off since March 15 and they had not been able to find a place due to paucity of space. All these officials, who hail from different parts of the valley, had come to their homes for the winter vacation, which runs for close to three months. A teacher said two of their colleagues even ventured to cross Zojila, the pass separating the valley with Ladakh, which has heavy snow for close to six months, by foot but had to return from “Captain curve”, a crossing named after an martyred Army officer near Zojila, because of forbidding spread of snow. “We request the government to help us resume our duty as soon as possible,” Zahoor said. |
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Mahavir Jayanti
Jammu, April 6 He hoped that the auspicious occasion would be a harbinger of harmony, peace and prosperity in the state and strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and amity. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also extended warm greetings to people on Mahavir Jayanti. In his message, the Chief Minister said Lord Mahavira’s teachings of non-violence and universal brotherhood held a mass appeal. He said in the present times of strife and violence, the path of ahimsa shown by Lord Mahavira assumed greater significance. Omar hoped that the festival would usher peace and prosperity in the state.
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Filthy canal water damages crops: Farmers
Jammu, April 6 The Irrigation Department had given the contract to private contractors for cleaning the canal and removing silt from its bed and banks. However, The Tribune in its columns a few weeks ago had stated that the desilting of the canal was just an eyewash as the contractors were dumping garbage and silt on the bed of the canal. The farmers in various villages of Marh division alleged that filthy water was being supplied to them and it was damaging their vegetable crops and soil. “You can see polythene bags and other garbage flowing in the canal water. This would not only damage the standing vegetable crops, but would also destroy the fertility of the soil,” said Jaju Ram, a farmer in the Marh block. Another farmer said, “We are in a fix. If we use the canal water, it damages soil and crops and if we don’t use it our crops would wither away without irrigation.” However, the Irrigation Department officials said though they ensured that the contractors desilt the canal and remove garbage from it, after water was released into the canal “We keep a strict vigil on the contractors, but after water is released into the canal people dump garbage in it,” an official of the Irrigation Department said.
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‘Tackle’ disasters professionally
Srinagar, April 6 Speaking at the inaugural function of a four-day workshop “Preparation of District Disaster Management Plans”, Masood said relief should reach people affected by disasters within 24 hours. “It has been observed that relief never reaches the affected people. It takes six months to assess losses caused due to droughts and floods. Drought is the latest phenomenon when we talk about disasters in Kashmir. We should have included agriculturists also in the exercise,” said Masood. The workshop is being organised by the divisional administration, Kashmir, and the Disaster Management Centre-Institute of Management and Public Administration (IMPA) and sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Referring to the Disaster Management Act, which is applicable across the country, the divisional commissioner said the implementing authorities had powers to take action against people who did not follow prescribed norms. “Departments like irrigation and flood control have an important role to play in disaster management programmes, especially in case of floods. It is important to hold such programmes in all districts. Avalanches are also disasters, which need to be looked into as these too have led to death of many persons in the past,” he said. Aamir Ali Khan of the National Institute of Disaster Management said during the programme participants would be expected to frame a plan of action.
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Drive to check vehicle theft launched
Jammu, April 6 “We received orders from our officers to conduct an inspection to see the credentials of vehicle owners and check their documents so as to find out whether the vehicle is stolen or not,” said a police sub inspector while discharging his duties at one of the surprise frisking points in Jammu. According to official sources, the state has become a hub of stolen vehicles and vehicles stolen from other states of the country are being dumped and sold in the state. Though the recovery of the stolen vehicles is not on the priority list of the police, yet in view of the security threat following the inputs that some Taliban militants might have sneaked into the Indian side, the police are taking no chance as the terrorists could use the stolen vehicles to carry out attacks in the city. Speaking to The Tribune, Sant Kumar Sharma, owner of a website that works for the recovery of stolen vehicles in the country said, “You say that the state, especially the Kashmir valley has become a dumping ground for the stolen vehicles, stolen from other parts of the country.” Adding he said, “In Delhi alone 10,000 vehicles are stolen every year and out of which 1,500 to 2,000 i.e. one sixth of them are dumped in our state most of them in the Kashmir valley.” He said his website in one year had helped people recover over 100 vehicles stolen from the various parts of the city. Speaking to The Tribune, SSP, Jammu, Manohar Singh said, “We carry on such drives on regular basis to catch the culprits and we have also busted a few rackets that were behind the stealing of cars from the city.”
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Bus driver challaned
Jammu, April 6 Talking to the Tribune, a traffic police officer said within 30 minutes of the complaint the minibus driver was challaned and the music system was seized. The playing of music on a high pitch by minibus drivers was resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents. It also caused inconvenience to passengers. — TNS |
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2 soldiers killed in Kupwara forests
Srinagar, April 6 The fight between militants, likely to be from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and the security forces is still on but it is not certain if any militant has been killed or not. Official sources said a joint team of the police and 18 RR and 9 Para of the Army encountered a group of militants who fired upon them, critically injuring the jawans. Police sources said these militants were not from the groups of fresh infiltrators and had been operating in the area for a long time. Another encounter which raged in the Zuna Reshi forests in Kupwara’s Lolab area for over three days has ended. Two militants and a solider were killed in this fight. The militants are likely to from among the recent infiltrators into the valley. The Army has, meanwhile, been carrying out intensive search operations across huge stretches of forests and rugged mountains in Kupwara district as it becomes clear that many more militants have crossed the LoC in the past few weeks and entrenched themselves in these friendly terrains. “The recent spurt in encounters has a lot to do with our aggressive intent as we are trying to hunt down militants before they ensconce themselves in the area,” official sources said.
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Tribune Impact
Jammu, April 6 The Tribune had mentioned in its column yesterday that despite a ban, some private schools affiliated to the board continue to change textbooks of primary classes every year in order to extract money from parents. The education board has once again issued notification to all private institutions in the state on behalf of the board secretary, Dr Sheikh Bashir Ahmad. Under office notification No. F (Acad-C)PP/CU/06 dated May 1, 2006, it is clearly mentioned that all heads of institutions affiliated to the board are informed that the ban is imposed, in order to raise the educational standard in the state with immediate effect, on guidebooks/series/keynotes/solutions prepared by some private publishers unauthorisedly inscribing “prepared as per the syllabus of the state Board of School Education.” According to another notification No: F (Acad-C) TB/Pvt./Inst/07 dated March 26, 2007, all private schools affiliated to the board are required to follow the curriculum and adopt textbooks as are prescribed for different classes by it. Talking to The Tribune, Dr Sheikh said besides these notifications, the board had also constituted inspection teams, which would conduct surprise visits to private educational institutions to verify whether all books printed, published and prescribed by the board form class I to XII had been adopted by them. He said the textbooks printed and published by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) or any other agency should not be prescribed to students in any case. Dr Sheikh said, according to both notifications, if any institution or institutions were found violating any of the orders, action would be taken against them as per the Board Regulations/ Provisions of Act of 1975.
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Public schools charging hefty fee: Sena
Jammu, April 6 While addressing a press meet here today, Dimpy Kohli, president of the sena and Rakesh Kak, press secretary, said these schools are extracting hard-earned money of the people on the name of fee and annual charges. Demanding state control over these institutions, they said these institutions were charging annual charges when a student passes the previous class and go to the upper class. While condemning, they said these schools were selling the text books through their only one approved book dealer on rates which was higher then the recommended prices. They alleged that the dealer was paying 20 per cent commission to the school authorities to get the book recommended. They warned that if the department concerned did not take action immediately, they might hold agitation against the system and its operators. |
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PDP candidates for
Anantnag, Baramulla
Srinagar, April 6 The candidates for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency and two Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonawar going in for byelections will be declared shortly, said a PDP spokesman here. The PDP would contest all six LS seats in the state. Though no announcement was made for the Srinagar-Budgam Lok Sabha constituency, informed sources said the party had approved the nomination of senior leader and former minister Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari from the seat. Unlike the top NC leadership, the opposition PDP has made it clear that it would prefer to be in state politics in the near future. This, according to informed sources, would help the party further improve its performance at the grassroots level. It had already improved its record by winning 21 seats in the recent Assembly elections against 16 in 2002. The party has been focusing on the demand for revocation of the AFSPA and withdrawal of troops from internal security duties. The party had emerged as a “regional alternative” to the NC with its slogans of “healing touch policy”, “disbanding of SOG of the police”, and “peace with dignity” in the 2002 Assembly elections it faced after its constitution in 1999.
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Udhampur-Doda Nominations of six rejected
Jammu, April 6 Those whose papers were rejected are Anil Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party, Ghulam Qadir Wani, Samajwadi Party, Rajiv Sharma, All J&K Kisan Mazdoor Party, Nek Mohammad, Independent, Bishan Dass, Bharatiya Bahujan Party and Sonia Wazir, a covering candidate of the BSP. With this the number of candidates for the Udhampur seat has come down to 15. These candidates are Adrees Ahmad Tabbasum, CPI, Balbir Singh, J&K People’s Democratic Party, Bhim Singh, JKNPP, Lal Singh, Congress, Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP, Rakesh Wazir, BSP, Rajesh Manchanda, RKSP, William Gill, All India Forward Block and Atul Sharma, Dr Bodh Raj, Dev Raj, Kanchan Sharma, Mohd Yousuf, Naresh Dogra, and Vimal Sharma, all Independents. |
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BJP flays clean chit to Tytler
Jammu, April 6 He decried the Congress for committing the double crime of giving clean chit to the main conspirator behind the Sikh riots and then giving him ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election. Addressing mediapersons at the party headquarters here, Charanjit said, “It was the NDA government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that appointed the Nanavati Commission in year 2000 to probe into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. It submitted its report in 2004, detailing accusations and evidences against senior members of the Delhi wing of the Congress, including Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar”, he said. He added, ‘They were accused of instigating mobs to avenge the assassination of Indira Gandhi by killing Sikhs in their constituencies.” Charanjit said, “It is strange that the CBI rejected the statement of prime witness Jasbir Singh, now in California, who alleged that he had heard Tytler making a comment with regard to the killing of Sikhs in his erstwhile constituency (Delhi Sadar) in 1984.” He said if voted to power at the Centre the BJP would take up the issue again and bring the guilty to book. Highlighting the plight of the Sikhs in the state, Charanjit said the successive state governments had ignored the Sikhs since Independence, especially those who migrated from the PoK. “During the rule of Maharaja Hari Singh, two seats, one each from Jammu and Kashmir, were reserved for the Sikhs. But the governments headed by the NC and the Congress had been ignoring them”, he said. “Though in the state constitution 24 seats have been reserved for refugees from the PoK in the state Assembly, till date no state government has taken single measure to provide rights to the refugees,” he alleged. BJP leaders Harjit Singh and Kirtan Singh were also present.
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Sikh bodies hold protest
Jammu, April 6 They said the Nanawati Commission headed by one of the highest judicial luminaries of the country had recommended the matter to the CBI after finding sufficient prima facie evidence against Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for their dubious role during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. “It is a pity that instead of giving justice to the aggrieved Sikh community, the CBI has given clean chit to the accused, obviously at the behest of their
political masters keeping the Lok Sabha elections in mind,” they said. They said it was unfortunate that the CBI had again left the Sikh community disappointed. The protesters threatened to intensify their agitation if the culprits were not brought to book. |
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Three Indians boarded bus to PoK
Rajouri, April 6 Meanwhile, three Indians, who got travel permission more than three months back, left Poonch for the PoK this morning on the Poonch-Rawalkote bus. Besides, 79 visitors crossed sides at Chakkan Da Bagh in Poonch district today. Of these, 31 passengers comprising three visitors to the PoK and 28 Pakistani returnees crossed over to the other side. |
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Jammu, April 6
