Jammu, June 2
In what could be considered as state government’s heavy-handed health policy, the population of over half a crore has only 10 ventilators at the main referral of the entire region - Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital, Jammu.

GMC witnesses thousands of accidental, burn and snake-bite cases collectively on daily basis, but in the absence of adequate number of life-saving equipments patients are left at the mercy of God, owing to their meagre financial sources.

Official sources confided that there were only eight ventilators in ICU, out of which two are kept reserved for VVIPs, while in emergency ward there were only two equipments.

Apart from this, private nursing homes in the city like Maharishi Daya and Hospital has one ventilator, Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Science and BN Charitable Hospital have two each.

The sources said during the past five years as many as 17,000 road accidents cases were reported in the region, which claimed over 4,000 lives.

“Whenever such exigencies develop, doctors suggest the patient for the ICU. Resultantly, the wards have to shift the patient to private nursing homes or outside the state,” they said. “But everyone cannot afford private treatment as private nursing homes virtually fleece the wards. In certain cases patients die in the absence of proper arrangements of ventilators,” they added.

“Most of the time situation turns ugly when we fail to accommodate patients in the ICU. The wards of patients think that the hospital administration is callous towards human lives. Many a times it prompt visitors to scuffle with the hospital employees,” they said.

Sources further divulged that in spite of having adequate funds at its discretion, the hospital authorities were not purchasing the equipments due to lack of will power.

Health Minister Sham Lal Sharma could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

Dr VV Kapoor, Head of Anesthesia Department, however, said: “The hospital is going to add six more beds in the ICU. We have already procured five ventilators while the purchase of the sixth is under way. All new equipment would be made operational within a month or so.

Srinagar, June 2
Life was paralysed in the Kashmir valley for the second consecutive day today in response to the separatists’ bandh call, while at least 12 persons, including seven civilians, were injured in stone-pelting incidents and clashes with the police.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti accompanied by several other MLAs and party leaders also took out a procession from Sher-e-Kashmir Park to Lal Chowk to register protest against the killing of two women in Shopian, and attempted to take out a march to Shopian.

The leaders were prevented by the police from moving to sensitive areas in Lal Chowk and Budshah Chowk to avoid any untoward incident, DGP (CID) Ashok Bhan told mediapersons today. He said they were escorted to Kothi Bagh Police Station to board their vehicles for their respective destinations. However, the leaders refused to board their cars and instead entered the police station as a mark of protest. Till the last reports came in, they were inside the police station.

Those lodged in the police station are PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Sartaj Madni (Deputy Speaker), other MLAs from south Kashmir, and Nizamuiddin Bhat from Bandipore.

Meanwhile, the party has called its cadre to march to Shopian tomorrow to show solidarity with the family of the two women, who were “raped and murdered”, a party spokesman said.

The march will start at 11 am from the party headquarters at Sher-e-Kashmir Park and to be led by president Mehbooba Mufti. All top leaders and legislators of the party and other workers will join the march, which will mark the beginning of the party’s campaign for revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and reduction of troops.

However, the DGP said there was adequate deployment in the cities of Srinagar and Shopian and other major towns of Kashmir to avoid any untoward incident.

The DGP said in Kulgam market of south Kashmir, a police bus carrying detainees was pelted with stones, while in Khonmoh, Srinagar, the vehicle of a private entrepreneur was surrounded by some youth and a guard accompanying him opened fire. An ambulance also came under stone pelting at Chhanpora. An attempt was also made by the women separatists to take out a procession in Lal Chowk, which was intercepted by the police and the protesters were taken into preventive custody.

Meanwhile, seven civilians and four policemen who were injured in the clashes have been hospitalised.

Jammu June 2
A wave of happiness has engulfed over Jammu ever since Madan Lal Sharma, Congress MP, who won from the Jammu-Poonch seat, swore in Dogri language in Parliament.

Madan Lal Sharma said: “We need to respect our mother tongue and enhance the culture associated with it. It is pity that today parents feel good in talking to their children in English, and teach them in English medium schools. If it continued this way, then we will have to depute tutors to learn Dogri.” He also advocated the general opinion of according status of ‘official language’ to Dogri.

Prof Veena Gupta, convener of the Board of Studies of Dogri and Dean of the Oriental Language said: “It is a welcome step that the MP gave Dogri its due share and recognition in Parliament. We have fought hard for the inclusion of Dogri language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Now it is the right time that it should be accepted as official language.”

Dr Shashi Pathania, head of Dogri Department, Jammu University, said: “Just starting off courses at primary-school level is not enough. The government should allocate proper time and well-qualified teachers for it.”

Lalit Mangotra, chairperson of the Dogri Sanstha, said: “I congratulated the MP for his initiative and look forward for his support in encouraging its spread.”

Srinagar , June 2
For Ajay Kumar and his seven colleagues from New Delhi visiting Kashmir, it has been a difficult time since Monday morning with the beginning of the general strike against the death of two women in the Shopian area of south Kashmir. The group, on a week-long tour to the valley, is waiting in a hotel room here for their scheduled departure tomorrow, without having been able to visit many places during the past two days.

“We left Pahalgam at 4 am on Monday for Gulmarg so as to avoid any trouble on the way during day time,” Ajay Kumar said. His party was asked to leave as early as possible so as to reach Gulmarg via Srinagar without being ‘caught in trouble’ due to the strike and protests. Having spent the last night in Gulmarg, about 50 km north of here, the group left early morning to reach Srinagar by 8 am, before any trouble started during day time. “The hotel staff and tour operators have been taking care to ensure that we do not face any difficulty,” he pointed out. But they had not been able to visit market places along Boulevard here and may return without shopping in Kashmir.

Hotel Broadway here has been getting calls from tourists for the cancellation of bookings since yesterday after the trouble began. Tourists are beginning to get stranded in hotels here or at Gulmarg and Pahalgam. “If the trouble continues, there will definitely be an adverse impact,” said Habibullah of Grand Mumtaz hotel, where the occupancy rate has already borne the impact of the strike.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here yesterday lamented that the frequent strike calls given by some groups would affect education, as well as tourism in the state. “If strikes continue, this season will also be lost,” the Chief Minister feared. While 3,800 tourists arrived on Saturday, their number declined to 2,600 on Sunday, which may further go down if the trouble continued, he said.

Tourist arrivals in Kashmir during May were already less compared to the last year, said Farooq Ahmad Shah, director, Department of Tourism, Kashmir. This was mainly because of the media projections on situation in the region and the Lok Sabha elections. There would be a further decline in the tourist arrivals if the trouble continued, opined officials of the Tourism Department and tourist traders. 

Udhampur, June 2
Not satisfied with the steps taken by the authorities to rehabilitate them at alternative places, displaced families of Pul-Doda today revived their agitation and staged a demonstration on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway. Vehicular traffic on this highway remained suspended for more than six hours due to the protest by the displaced families.

These displaced families have been asking the authorities for the past week to fulfil the promises made for their proper rehabilitation. Without properly adjusting these families on alternative places, the authorities snapped the power and water connections of the families still living at Pul Doda, infuriating them.

All displaced families joined by some locals this morning staged a massive demonstration and shouted slogans against the authorities. They staged a dharna on the national highway and blocked traffic. The blockade was lifted only after senior officers of the Revenue Department rushed to the spot and assured to solve their problems. 

Srinagar, June 2
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) BR Sharma said today that all poll and security-related arrangements had been completed for the Hazratbal Assembly byelection tomorrow.

Six contestants, including one woman, are in the fray for the byelection.

Sharma said around 600 polling staff had been deployed at 119 polling stations set up in the constituency. 

Srinagar, June 2
Bhausaheb Bhawar from Maharashtra, who has come on a bicycle and is on a peace mission to create awareness against female foeticide and dowry, met Governor NN Vohra, here today.

Bhawar (37), who is in the state for the past five days, has so far cycled across the Jammu division. After visiting various parts of the Kashmir valley, including Baramulla, Uri and Kupwara for a month, he proposes to proceed to Kargil and Leh districts.

Giving details of his mission to the Governor, Bhawar said during the first phase of his cycling expedition (1993-2006) and second phase (from January 2007 till date) he has pedalled across all the states of the country four times.

He said it was his second visit to the state as he had visited the state earlier also in 1997 to spread the message of peace and brotherhood.

Vohra wished him all success in his mission. Bhawar, who belongs to Hasnabad village in Jalna district of Maharashtra, has so far changed eight cycles during his nationwide expedition.

Jammu, June 2
Activists of the Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj have deferred their march to Srinagar due to a curfew-like situation there over the Shopian incident.

Ajay Safaya, spokesman for the organisation, said, “The march for jobs has been deferred by a couple of days. Our protest and dharna outside the Srinagar secretariat won’t have any impact as there was violence and a curfew-like situation in Srinagar over the Shopian incident.”

He said the samaj was determined to take out the march and would announce the rescheduled plan in a day or two.

Jammu, June 2
In the past 15 years 102 daily wagers working with the Power Development Department (PDD) have lost their lives while performing their duties and the successive state governments have failed to provide any kind of ex gratia to family members of the deceased.

“Since 1994, 102 daily wagers working in the PDD have lost their lives while performing their duties,” PDD daily wagers association president Tarun Gupta said, adding that, “In absence of the proper safety kits more than 185 daily wagers have become totally handicapped due to accidents while performing their duties on high tension and low tension wires.”

In absence of any insurance cover and the apathetic attitude of the successive state government and the officers of the department the daily wagers are made to suffer.

The daily wagers association has conducted a survey at the divisional level regarding the number of causalities and injuries and they would be soon submitting their report to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

Gupta said the department even failed to provide any medical help to the two daily wagers, who were injured during the repair work of a transmission line in Rajouri few days ago.

“Kehar Singh and Ravinder Kumar had suffered injuries during the repair work, while Kehar Singh died in the hospital; Ravinder Kumar is battling for his life in a Ludhiana hospital,” Tarun said.

The department pays an amount of Rs 70 per day to the daily wagers but majority of them haven’t received their salaries for the past four years.

As per figures prepared by the association from 1994 to 1999, the PDD had engaged 1,758 daily wagers whereas from 1999 to 2008 the number of daily wagers engaged were 1,312.

Tarun Gupta said the total strength of the daily wagers working in the department across the state was 6,500.

Meanwhile refuting the allegations PDD chief engineer (maintenance and repairs) Ajay Gupta said the department provided necessary help to the daily wager, who met an accident.

Udhampur, June 2
As preliminary investigations have established the involvement of a gang of robbers from outside the state in the robbery in the General Post Office, the Udhampur police has sought help from Punjab Police, especially Gurdaspur cops, to solve the case.

“As Gurdaspur district is bordering our state, we are in touch with Punjab Police to make a headway in the case,” Surinder Gupta, SSP, Udhampur, told The Tribune.

Though Gupta said it was a routine to seek help from Punjab Police, sources said the local police had enough evidence establishing the involvement of the notorious “Kala Kacha” gang in the robbery. Even earlier the police had solved some theft cases involving the “Kala Kacha” gang with the help of Punjab Police.

While senior police officers are maintaining a silence over the issue, the sources said the police was working on several theories.

The police believed that the burglars were from other state. It also gathered information about the robbery in the General Post Office in Udhampur district and two robbery attempts at Chanderkote in Ramban district and in the General Post Office, Kathua, besides weapons seized from the spot at Udhampur. The information indicated that it was either the handiwork of the Kala Kacha gang or criminals from the Pardhi tribe. As circumstantial evidences established the involvement of professional robbers, the local police also sought assistance from the Jammu police to crack the case.

A four-member team of the Jammu police has been deputed to assist the local police in solving the case.

During investigations it was discovered that before looting the Udhampur post office, the same gang had tried to break the “safe” of Jammu and Kashmir Bank at Chanderkote near Ramban on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

“It has been almost established that the robbers committed crimes on the Jammu-Srinagar highway only and they did not enter the town,” the sources said. They did not rule out the possibility of the robbers fleeing the state after committing the crime at Kathua.

Jammu, June 2
The State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) today caught red-handed an official of the Revenue Department and a retried patwari while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,200 from a man for mutating his ancestral land in his name.

Official sources said acting upon a complaint by Ajit Singh of Kotoro Kalan in RS Pura, vigilance sleuths laid a trap and caught red-handed girdawar Balak Ram, who also held the charge of Kotoro Kalan patwari, and his middleman, retired patwari Jangi Ram, while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,200 from the complainant.

The girdawar in connivance with the retired patwari had demanded a bribe for transferring the ancestral land of Ajit Singh in his name, they added.

Ajit Singh lodged a complaint with the vigilance today alleging that Balak Ram was demanding Rs 5,200 for mutating his ancestral land in his name as his father had died.

The complainant also alleged that Balak Ram had already taken Rs 4,800 as bribe for the job a few days ago, but later demanded more money.

The sources said the accused girdawar along with his tout was caught red-handed while accepting the bribe from the complainant.

The tainted money was recovered from the possession of the accused in the presence of independent witnesses. The hand wash of the accused also tested positive.