Jammu, July 24
Various student organisations in Jammu, including the Jammu Justice Movement (JJM) and the Central University Joint Action Committee (CJUAC), today held a protest demanding the setting up of a central university in Jammu.

Under the banner of the JJM, students of Government Gandhi Memorial Science College, SPMR Commerce College and Maulana Azad Memorial College boycotted classes and held a protest at Shahidi Sathal today.

The protesters moved in a procession and passed through Jewel Chowk, Vinayak Bazaar, Raghunath Bazaar and gheraoed the headquarters of the NC and the Congress in the Residency Road area.

The agitating students criticised senior NC leader Ajay Sadhotra for his statement that the location of the central university had not been finalised yet.

Pushvinder Singh, president of the JJM, warned the MLAs from Jammu that they would face the wrath of people if they did not raise the issue of discrimination against the Jammu region and the shifting of the central university to Srinagar during the forthcoming Assembly session on July 27. Meanwhile, the activists of the Central University Joint Action Committee held a protest under the leadership of Ajya Taloor. The protesters blocked the main road for 20 minutes. 

Srinagar, July 24
Describing it as ‘politics of hypocrisy’, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has expressed concern over the silence maintained by separatists over the killing of a three-year-old child and his father in Keller, Shopian, on Wednesday night.

The Chief Minister said here that the people who would have raised a hue and cry had this crime been committed by the security forces or the boy had come under an Army vehicle, preferred to keep silent.

He said these people who joined all marches and strikes to hammer the human rights violations were mysteriously silent over such a gruesome murder of a three-year-old innocent child.

Omar said fairness, morality and respect for human rights demanded that these elements, who really believed in human rights, should have raised the same voice as they used to raise in similar situations. No call of ‘Shopian Chalo’, ‘Lal Chowk Chalo’ and no calendar of hartals had been given on this gruesome incident, Omar wondered.

The Chief Minister said the killing of a three-year-old was not only a gross violation of human rights, but also was an inhuman act. “Silence does not behove these elements,” he said and added that they should equally condemned the killing of a kid.

Meanwhile, the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), an organisation of the Pandits residing in the valley, has also expressed serious concern over the silence over the killing of a child and his father in Shopian. “There is no ‘hartal’, no ‘demonstration’ over the killings of two persons in Keller, Shopian. It shows that the separatists are biased and have no courage to condemn this kind of act by the militants,” KPSS president Sanjay K. Tickoo said here.

He also pointed out that the separatists maintained silence during early militancy years when there was an ‘onslaught’ on the Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to migrate from the valley.

Jammu, July 24
When it comes to adopting sterilisation as a family planning move, the onus rests on women. Sterilisation figures of recent years reveal that women outscore men by many times in population control. At the same time, it also reflects there were many takers of the myth that men lose their strength after the operation.

In Jammu, only 43 men opted for sterilisation as compared to 408 women in the first quarter of this financial year.

“Just 10 per cent men came forward even though they get Rs 1,100 for the operation while women get Rs 600,” Dr VP Sharma, Dy Senior Medical Officer, said.

Data of previous years state the same story. In 2006-2007 only 85 men volunteered for the operation against 4,235 women. In 2007-08, as many as 4,723 women had got the family planning operation as compared to about 100 men. In 2008-09, the figure was little better with 4,010 women and 185 men.

Dr Sharma said male sterilisation had become simple over the years but still there had not been much change. “Though latest technology provides procedure in which the male can go home within minutes of the operation, there are not many takers,” Dr Sharma said.

Doctors said laparoscopic sterilisation was the easiest procedure these days with 80 to 90 per cent of women adopting this birth control method.

Interestingly, Rajasthan has the highest number of failed sterilisation cases in the country. Data accrued from government sources said Rajasthan had reported 800 failed cases in the past three years. Uttar Pradesh comes second with about 500 while Madhya Pradesh has 435 odd cases.

Haryana has reported 90 cases while Himachal Pradesh has 25 cases and Punjab has reported failure of 19 cases. Goa has the lowest figure with just three cases reported in the past two years.

Jammu, July 24
The Jammu State Morcha (P) today criticised senior NC leader Ajay Sadhotra for his statement that no decision had been taken on the site of the central university. JSM (P) president Prof Virender Gupta in a meeting criticised “the misleading statement of Sadhotra”. He added that the government had already earmarked 6,000 kanals in Samba.

Gupta said, “We would like to bring into the notice of Sadhotra that the proposal of the Central government for establishing a central university and an IIM was taken by the Union government. The IIM would be set up in Kashmir province while the central university would be established in Jammu.”

He said there was never any proposal to have two separate campuses one each in Jammu and Kashmir provinces.

“The NC now stands exposed in front of the people of the Jammu province as they never want that there should be an equitable development of the Jammu region vis-a-vis the Kashmir region,” Gupta said. He demanded that if the government intended to establish two separate campuses of the central university, it should also establish two separate campuses of the IIM in the two regions.

Jammu, July 24
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Chandigarh, has set aside two memos and a chargesheet served on Dr Arun Kumar, the then Principal Secretary to the Governor and chief executive officer of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.

Arun Kumar had filed an application stating that in June 2008 the state government passed an order “against the diversion of Baltal land” when the preparations for the resumption of the Amarnath yatra had started, which resulted in a hue and cry in the Kashmir valley. The applicant held a press conference on June 17, 2008, to brief the media on the preparation of the yatra but the issue of the press conference was stretched beyond the point of distortion.

However, the state government constituted a three-member committee to analyse evidence, including video and audiotapes pertaining to the press conference, to report as to whether he had violated the provisions of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules.

In his application, Arun Kumar had challenged the constitution of the three-member committee on the ground that of the three members one was junior to him by a year and another by 10 years, which was in violation of the service rules and principles of natural justice. However, the applicant was attached with the General Administration Department on June 28, 2008.

The show cause notice served on Arun Kumar was replied to. It was further alleged that the state government with a vindictive mind asked the applicant to vacate his house by October 1, 2008.

The CAT, while allowing the application, quashed the memos and the chargesheet and held that the government’s decision of setting up the three-member committee to probe Arun Kumar’s press statement was unjustified. It directed the government to post the applicant commensurate with his status and seniority.

The CAT Bench further held that though the state government ought not to have acted touchy about the press statement alleged to have been made by an officer. “It is a well known that reporters at times exhibit an adventurous mood for cornering persons and in their effort to probe, officers have to deal with matters out of text,” it held.

Srinagar, July 24
A large number of devotees offered Friday prayers at the Hazratbal shrine while a huge congregations were held at other shrines and mosques here and other parts of the valley on the occasion of Mehraj-ul-Alam.

Massive congregation prayers were also held at the Jamia Masjid. The congregation at Asar Sharief in Kalashpora was addressed by renowned Islamic scholar Maulana Reyaz Ahmad Hamdani. The relics of the revered Prophet were also displayed after every prayer during the day.

In his address at the Jamia Masjid, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq expressed concern over increasing social evils like immoral activities and corruption, which led to moral degeneration in society.

Minister for Transport, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Qamar Ali Akhoon visited the Hazratbal shrine this morning and took stock of the arrangements made for the occasion.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, has organised a medical camp on the shrine premises for providing 24 hours healthcare to the devotees and examined over 900 patients.

Srinagar, July 24
Two pilgrims, including a BSF officer, died of cardiac arrest after paying obeisance at the Amarnath cave shrine, taking the death toll in the ongoing yatra to 34, official sources said.

Sub-inspector Hanu Singh, posted in north Kashmir, suffered a heart attack shortly after offering prayers at the cave shrine today, they said. The BSF officer was taken to a nearby mobile hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors.

Another pilgrim, Sadhu Dass (80) from Bihar, complained of severe chest pain at Sheshnag along the Pahalgam route and died before doctors could attend to him.

Sonali of Lahori Gate, Amritsar, and her one-and-a half-year-old son, Himanshu, were saved from drowning in a deep nullah in the Sheshnag-Panchtarni area on the Pahalgam route yesterday.

The rescue operation was conducted by the mobile rescue team (MRT), deployed by the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) in the Sheshnag-Panchtarni sector, and on both sides of Mahagunas Top, a spokesman for the board said here. They were safely shifted to a bhandara in Poshpathri and given the required medical assistance.