Jammu, August 4
While a spate of crimes in varied forms have rocked Akhnoor subdivision of late, police investigations into the suicides of two sisters and a priest in Hamirpur Kona village on July 20 so far have not been able to draw any definite conclusion.

The police which is still awaiting the autopsy report a fortnight after the incident claims that investigations are on.

On the fateful day, 23-year old Rupa Kumari and 18-year old Arti Kumari, both daughters of Bachan Singh, and the village priest Mahant Motinath, aka Mahender Nath, originally a native of Ambala in Haryana, allegedly consumed some toxic substance in Hamirpur Kona and died.

The incident shocked the entire village, where rumour mills still continue to spread various theories, including the alleged relations of the girls with the priest.

As of now, the investigators claim these to be suicides. “There is no indication of cold-blooded murders”, says Additional SP (Rural) Mohan Lal Bhagat.However, he had told The Tribune on July 20 that the girls were under the influence of the priest.

“We are in the process of recording statements of the witnesses, including parents of the deceased girls”, said Bhagat.The ASP also claimed that the autopsy reports of the deceased were awaited.

However, official sources, who described the three deaths as suicides, divulged that villagers, including a sadhu of Hamirpur Kona, talked about the alleged relations of the priest with the young girls.

And now the police had started probing the complexities of these relations, which might have been responsible for the extreme step taken by the girls, they said.

The sources said the priest who panicked after the deaths of his ‘disciples’also consumed some toxic substance and ended his life to escape the wrath of the villagers.

On July 20, Rupa Kumari and Arti Kumari were spotted vomiting by their family members around 6 a.m in their house. A couple of hours before they died, both the sisters had gone to pay obeisance at the village temple, Tilla Mandir, managed by Mahant Motinath around 4 a.m.

The sources said Rupa Kumari was engaged a fortnight ago to a youth from Samba and her marriage was likely to be solemnised this month.

Even as the villagers were in a state of shock over the deaths of the girls on the morning of July 20, came the news that the priest had also consumed poison and died in the afternoon.

Jammu, August 4
Patients at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Jammu, the only referral hospital for the entire region having 10 districts, have been facing problems as the only magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine has developed a snag.

The MRI, also called Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT), test is conducted to visualise the internal structure and function of the body. It is useful in neurological (brain), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and ontological (cancer) imaging.

Sources disclosed that the only MRI machine developed fault last week. Since then it is non-functional, putting patients to inconvenience.

HOD radio diagnosis, Dr Ghani Sham said, “The equipment has not been functioning for the past two-three days. We have summoned mechanics from Delhi. We are also trying to repair the machine as early as possible”.

“We conduct MRI test on 15-20 patients on a daily basis,” he said while agreeing that there is a requirement for another machine to cope up with such an emergency situation.

Patients coming from deprived or not so well-off backgrounds are bearing the brunt of the prevailing situation. According to the sources, the hospital charges Rs 2,500 for an MRI test whereas the private laboratories charge almost double the amount or even more. Hence, the patients are either being compelled to shell out extra money or wait in anticipation till the machine is mended.

"I had to pay Rs 7,000 for an MRI test in a private lab,” rued Sukh Ram of Nagrota. But many who cannot afford the high fee, have no option but to wait.

“We are waiting for the machine to get functional so that my father could undergo the test,” said Rohan Gupta, a local resident.

“We have been visiting the hospital regularly since Saturday but the MRI room is closed since then. Our family is worried about my father’s treatment but due to poor economic means we cannot get his tests conducted from outside,” he rued.

The principal of the GMCH, Dr Rajinder Singh, said, "Due to the accidental leakage of helium gas, the machine was not functioning. We have called a team of experts to repair it. The gas would be brought from Mumbai to make the machine functional as early as possible”.

“Due to its high cost (nearly Rs 8 crore), the machine is one of its kind in the entire region. However, we have two CT scan machines at the hospital. So emergency patients are not suffering,” he maintained.

Jammu, August 4
The festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated to strengthen the bond of affection between brothers and sisters. The city these days is abuzz with hectic shopping activity ahead of the festival.

Most of the shops have been decorated with colourful rakhis made up of silk and cotton thread. The shops are also dotted with numerous gift items. Most of the people are purchasing chocolates, photo frames, crystals and soft toys for giving gifts to their brothers or sisters.

Like every year, different cartoon characters can be seen on rakhis for children. The sale of such kind rakhis always remains high, as children are fond of cartoons. Spiderman and pokimon are more in demand as compared to other cartoon characters.

Rakhis depicting pictures of gods and goddess are also available. Those with religious bent of mind are purchasing these rakhis.

Rakhis are available in the market at a price ranging between Rs 5 and Rs 500. Mumbai-made bracelet-type rakhi with heavy stones, which costs Rs 500, is available only at branded stores and is also witnessing a good sale.

Other popular types of rakhis include gold-plated ones costing from Rs 150 to Rs 300; silver-plated rakhis costing Rs 100 to Rs 200 and stonish/Korean rakhis are also available at Rs 200 to Rs 500. Rakhi “thalies” are also available in the market at Rs 125 to Rs 700.

Samba, August 4
Our country seems to be progressing towards a new era of development, but still there are many areas in the frontier district of Samba which are devoid of civic amenities.

A majority of villages in the district do not have a primary health centre and the villagers have to travel several kilometres to reach the district hospital.

“We don’t have a primary health centre in our village. The only heath centre is located a few kilometres away in Reya village,” said Prabhat Singh, a resident of Talgarh village of the district.

He said, “Whenever there is an emergency, we have to face various hardships and if a person falls sick during night, it becomes difficult for us to shift the patient to Samba”.

The residents blame that even the only health centre in Reya village is operating without a doctor and it remains closed for most of the time.

Talgarh village also does not have any middle or high school and children from this village have to walk several kilometres to reach a middle or high school located in Sadoh village.

“The middle school is in Sadoh, which is 2 km from here, and the high school is in Reya. Our children have to walk several miles a day to attend the school,” said Mohinder Singh, a resident of Talgarh.

The villagers here allege that even the schools in Sadoh and Reya have been running without adequate teaching staff as a majority of the teachers remain absent.

“A majority of the staff members in the school belong to Jammu district, so they are not regular. The education of our children is suffering due to this,” said Mohinder.

A few kilometres away from Talgarh village is located Sadoh village. Residents of this village say that for the past many days they have been living without proper electricity supply.

“Our village is located just on the international border, but we don’t have proper electricity supply. Whenever the supply is on, voltage keeps on fluctuating. We cannot operate any of our gadgets,” said Kuldeep Sharma, a resident of Sadoh village.

The residents of a majority of the villages in this belt rue that they don’t have proper facility of drinking water and their women have to walk several miles to fetch potable water from nearby villages.

“There are many villages in the area which lack basic facility of drinking water. Our women have to walk a long distance to get water,” said Tilak Rah, a resident of Suchetgarh village.

The local MLA from the constituency, Yashpal Kundal, said people should come to him with their problems and he would take them at the appropriate level.

Jammu, August 4
For its vast range and accessibility, radio still holds its relevance, more so in the Indo-Pak ties. With the advent of every rainy season, Prasar Bharati’s Radio Kashmir Jammu (RKJ) braces up to deliver the goods in its effort to bridge the gap between the two neighbouring countries, whose relations have most of the times been in deep waters.

Even when the Pakistani media is in the habit of stooping too low in its anti-India propaganda, the RKJ on the other hand has every time come to the rescue of common Pakistanis, whenever there is a slightest rise in the water level of the Tawi, the Ravi or the Chenab flowing down to Pakistan.

This year, being no exception, the ritual, not known to much people, is religiously followed between July and September as a part of the Indus Water Treaty.

Such is the highest standard of broadcasting and abiding by the treaty that the RKJ continued to transmit the flood messages to Pakistan during July 1999 when the country was engaged in pushing back Pakistani soldiers, who had intruded into the Kargil Sector that year.

And despite poor rains this year, the process of broadcasting such messages from the 300KW high-power transmitter of the RKJ has already begun.

The flood data or the rise in the water level of these rivers is gathered by the Central Water Commission (CWC), which works under the Union Ministry of Water Resources.

As a part of the treaty, the CWC has to pass on the data to the RKJ even when there is a slightest rise in the water level of these rivers during the rainy season.

Anuj Kanwal, executive engineer, CWC, Chenab division, said there were strict guidelines to broadcast flood messages through the RKJ at least thrice a day from July 1 to September 10 every year at 9.30 am, 3pm and 11.10 pm.

Anuj said while the water level of the Tawi was measured at Jammu, that of the Chenab was recorded at Akhnoor. “Similarly, if the Ravi crosses the danger mark near Madhopur, the information is immediately passed on to Pakistan through the RKJ,” he explained.

Ravi Magotra, programme executive, RKJ, said; “The premier broadcasting station of the state ensures that the flood messages it receives from the CWC are broadcasted at the exact time as the station is being monitored by different agencies even across the border”.

“We, at times, receive urgent messages from the CWC and after interrupting our routine programmes, these messages are necessarily to be put on air for the benefit of the neighbouring country,” he added.

Jammu, August 4
The Jammu Municipal Corporation had proposed the reorganisation of the corporation on the pattern of the municipal corporations of the rest of the country to make it viable around two years ago, but no decision has been taken in this regard so far.

Commissioner Mubarak Singh said he had taken up the issue in a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand in Srinagar.

“The proposal had been forwarded to the government two years ago, but no decision in the matter has been taken so far,” said mayor Kavinder Bushan Gupta.

The mayor said all revenue-earning departments like the Urban Engineering Department (UED), the Public Health Engineering Department (PHE), the Power Development Department (PDD), the Primary Education and other developmental departments which dealt with the civic needs of society, needed to be brought under the corporation.

He mentioned that by not putting these departments under the jurisdiction of the corporation, the departments were working at cross purposes which resulted in loss of crores of rupees to the government exchequer every year.

While explaining his statement, Gupta said, “Once a department macadamises a road, another department breaks the same for laying the pipes and cables immediately after its macadamisation, thus not only causing loss to the government exchequer, but also subjecting people to inconvenience”.

The corporation was made an autonomous body in 2003. In other parts of the country, all territorial organisations were under the municipal corporations, alleged Gupta.

The corporation was unable to perform its role of equipping the city with all basic facilities due to lack of finances. The annual income of the corporation was around Rs 6.5 crore and the government provided around Rs 30 crore, whereas the expenditure was around Rs 50 crore, Gupta said.

He said the total dependence for financial allocation upon the government made the organisation vulnerable to undue interferences by the government in its routine functioning.

Gupta said: “At present, the situation is that the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) Housing Department sells the land, earns profit and leaves a liability for the JMC of constructing lanes and drains for such colonies. Till the time the JDA is brought under the corporation, stamp duty needs to be levied on the sale of plots by the JDA”.

Even the CAG’s report for 2009 also favoured handing over certain institutions to the Municipal Corporation.

“Government institutions that have outlived their utility can be abolished. Even in the long run, jobs entrusted to the SDA and the JDA can be passed on to the Municipal Corporations,” a CAG report says.

Srinagar, August 4
The work on the development and widening of 17.8-km long Srinagar bypass between Athwajan and Parimpora involving a cost of Rs 71 crore has been going on for the past six years, and is expected to be completed by the next year. A separate project on this road, comprising four bridges and a flyover at a cost of Rs 63 crore, that was started three years ago is also in progress.

The road was constructed over three decades ago to divert the traffic, mainly trucks carrying essential commodities coming from outside the valley via the 300-km long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

It also provided an alternative road for outgoing fruit-laden trucks from north Kashmir districts of Baramulla and Kupwara without entering Srinagar city. It has virtually become a dividing line on the western periphery of Srinagar city, separating this district from the adjacent Budgam district.

Over the years, numerous residential colonies have come up on either side of the bypass. Their residents have now begun to complain about the low pace of work on the development of the road and the flyover.

Residents around Hyderpora crossing have been complaining about the delay in the construction work, causing several problems like noise and air pollution and even “damage” to their houses due to deep drilling for the construction of pillars for the flyover.

Over 40 per cent of the work has been completed, according to chief engineer Mir Mohammad Shafi. The 337-m long flyover on the bypass at Hyderpora crossing will be the second flyover in Srinagar city, after the flyover at Jehangir Chowk in the central city, which was opened to traffic on July 13, 2004.

The road from Srinagar to Budgam cuts through the bypass at Hyderpora, making it a busy crossing and thereby necessitating the construction of a flyover to overcome the traffic congestion. The road also leads to the Srinagar airport that falls in Budgam district. The 873-m long link road to Nowgam (Srinagar) railway station also shoots off from the bypass, about 3 km from Athwajan.

Both projects, the road widening and the construction of bridges and flyover, are expected to be completed by the end of next year, officials here said.

There are four bridges between Athwajan and Parimpora i.e. at Lasjan, Padshahi Bagh, Chhanapora and Tengpora, on which 63, 75, 55 and 45 per cent of the work has been completed, respectively. Once completed, the six-lane bypass road would be the main connecting link between the north and south Kashmir, easing the traffic situation in the city.

In the absence of proper direction signs, the city road infrastructure is proving to be a nightmare for visitors to the city. Hundreds or thousands of pilgrims pass through Jammu while on way to Vaishno Devi, Amarnath or other revered shrines. But many take a wrong way and get trapped in the thick traffic of the city. 

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