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Swine flu:3 more test postive
Militants kill SPO in ambush
11,636 kanals transferred to occupants
Ration Shortage |
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Central University
BJP protests NBCC working
Sixth Pay Panel
Panic after 2 men seen moving suspiciously
Fast enters 39th day
Minor girl dies
6,000 PDD daily-wage staff go on strike
Unemployment major issue
Remote areas top priority: CM
Taj cornered in Assembly over ration shortage
Swine Flu
Registration with employment exchanges must
Time ‘not ripe’ for Army pullout
Regularisation of services sought
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Swine flu:3 more test postive
Jammu, August 18 However, with three more students testing positive in the Kashmir valley, the total number of H1N1 virus cases in Jammu and Kashmir regions has gone up to 12. Epidemiologist Dr RS Charak told The Tribune that the blood samples of nine more persons having the symptoms of the H1N1virus were sent to the NICD today. “We have received the reports of 20 persons so far, out of which five, including the 22-year-old girl from Nanak Nagar, have tested positive,” he said. |
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Militants kill SPO in ambush
Udhampur, August 18 According to police, a patrol party, on its way to Marmat near Guha, about 20 km from Doda, was ambushed by militants. The militants first lobbed grenades on the patrol party and later fired indiscriminately. The militants involved in the attack are believed to belong to the LeT. SPO Mohammad Asharaf, a resident of Trone was killed on the attack, while another received injuries. The police later recovered the body and handed it over to Ashraf's family. Doda SSP Parbhat Singh said search had been launched to track down the militants involved in this attack. Huge cache of arms seized near LoC
Poonch: The security forces on Tuesday seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including one AK bullet-action gun, from two militant hideouts near the LoC in Poonch district, police sources said here. A joint team of the Army and the police unearthed a militant hideout in the Balakote forest area, about 60-km from here, during a search operation. The seizures from the hideout included one AK bullet-action gun with 19 rounds, one AK-56 rifle with five magazines, four pistols with five rounds and four magazines, 10 grenades, two wireless sets, 885 AK rifle rounds and one AK rifle magazine. The security forces busted another hideout in the forest area of Patri, about 80-km from here, in the district. An AK-56 rifle with 190 rounds and two magazines, four Chinese grenades, one Pakistani grenade, one pistol with seven rounds and one magazine and a telescopic gun were seized from the hideout. — PTI |
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11,636 kanals transferred to occupants
Srinagar, August 18 He said 54,136 kanals had been transferred to the occupants under the Roshni Act in Jammu province, so far, for which Rs 15.75 crore revenue had been realised from them. He said 2,12,667 kanals was yet to be transferred to the occupants in the Jammu region out of the land approved by the committee set up for the purpose. The Minister said about 6,223 kanals of land had been transferred among the occupants against a revenue of about Rs 40 crore realised from them in the Kashmir division.
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Central University
Jammu, August 18 The rally, starting from Geeta Bhawan in the morning, would pass through Chowk Chobutra, Pacca Danga before culminating at City Chowk. Sethi said such rally would also be held at the tehsil and district levels. Classes would be boycotted in all schools and colleges of the city, except University of Jammu, during these two days. Sethi that the core committee has also decided to launch a “Yodha Bharti Abhiyan” in the province to enrol around two lakh youngsters in the CUAS. Students of all city colleges boycotted their classes today and held demonstrations in front of their respective colleges. Meanwhile, the signature campaign launched by the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) on the varsity issue entered into fifth day today. According to a statement, more than 2000 persons, including students of Gandhi Nagar Women College, signed the memorandum for the Prime Minister to open the proposed university in Jammu Province. Despite rain , the people signed the white sheet supporting the central university’ in Jammu, Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies and dismissal of tainted ministers officially involved in land-grabbing, sex scandal and others rackets.
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Ration Shortage
Udhampur, August 18 Wani said the residents of Banihal had been facing ration shortage for the past six months. He said most of the government-run depots had been closed due to the non-availability of ration.
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BJP protests NBCC working
Jammu, August 18 Lambasting the state government for its total surrender to a private construction agency, Karan Singh said the NBCC had turned the whole of Jammu city into debris. “Today the common man is exposed to a grave danger while walking on these roads. Vehicles plying on these roads are getting damaged. There are big pools of muddy water, making life miserable for commuters.” Demanding a high-level inquiry by a retired High Court judge, Karan Singh said that the people had every right to know as to why the state government was not questioning the NBCC style of working. He also took the Jammu-based Congress ministers and MLAs to task for their total silence over the high-handedness of the NBCC. He asked them to clear their position as to why they were not taking up the matter in the Cabinet and make the government clarify as to why the NBCC was not repairing the damaged roads on a priority basis. |
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Sixth Pay Panel
Jammu, August 18 The JCC, a conglomerate of various employees’ associations, has given the two-day strike call beginning tomorrow. “Our strike call remains unchanged, as the government has not come clean over the entire issue,” said Ram Kumar Sharma, a JCC member. The JCC had been demanding the immediate implementation of the February 19 Cabinet decision agreeing to implement the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. Among other things, the employees have been demanding the removal of discrepancies in SRO 93, 20 per cent HRA, enhancement of retirement age to 60 years from 58 years, conversion of cost of living allowance to dearness allowance (DA) and 20 years of qualifying service for pension.
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Panic after 2 men seen moving suspiciously
Jammu, August 18 Sources said a woman, who had gone out to attend the nature’s call, spotted two men with faces covered with clothes. They added that seeing the woman the duo hid behind cannabis bushes. However, the news spread like wildfire and residents informed the police immediately. The police allegedly arrived late. Residents protested for some time and then dispersed. The SHO of Domana police station said they could not find any suspicious-looking element in the area.—
TNS |
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Fast enters 39th day
Jammu, August 18 |
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Minor girl dies
Jammu, August 18 After spotting her vomiting the family members rushed her to a hospital but she died on the way. |
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6,000 PDD daily-wage staff go on strike
Jammu, August 18 “The authorities are unduly delaying the absorption of daily-wage employees of the department. We have met the Finance Minister, who told us that he had allocated funds for us, but was awaiting the list from the officers concerned,” Tarun Gupta, president of the PDD Daily Wagers Association, said. He said, “All daily-wage PDD workers in the three regions of the state went on strike from today.” |
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Unemployment major issue
Srinagar, August 18 He was replying to the discussion on Budget in the Assembly here today that was presented on August 10. He made it clear that since all issues were taken up with the employees soon after the coalition government took over in January, they were testing the patience of the government. The minister assured the House that while the employees got revised salary with effect from July this year, they would be getting the arrears by October-end with the Finance Commission report. In his 100-minute-long reply speech, the Finance Minister dwelt upon the major issues related to the Budget and those raised by 35 members during the past three days of general discussion. He pointed out that other major issues that confronted the state included unemployment and delay in holding panchayat elections as he defended his Budget proposals. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, however, expressed concern over the hike in employment cess on petrol, diesel, chicken and taxes on mutton stocks that hit hard the common man. Rather said the main challenge was the growth of economy in the state. He disagreed with the views of senior PDP leader Muzaffar Huissain Baig, who had initiated the discussion on the inheritance of “eroded resource base”.
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Remote areas top priority: CM
Srinagar, August 18 He was addressing a public meeting at Drass in Kargil district after giving away prizes to the participants of a polo match. The Chief Minister said Drass-like areas would be opened up for international tourism by way of organising activities like polo and other sports. “Drass is commonly known for its cold temperature but we will endeavour to bring it on international tourist map for its scenic beauty and wonderful mountains.” He said the Tourism Department would be directed to explore the rich potential of Drass and other such areas for tourism development and adventure sports. Omar said the annual plan of Rs 5,500 crore and Rs 1,200 crore under the Prime Ministers’ Reconstruction Plan sanctioned by the Centre would be distributed in the state to ensure equitable development of all areas with additional focus on the far-flung and cut-off areas.
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Taj cornered in Assembly over ration shortage
Srinagar, August 18 The members were dissatisfied with the replies of Taj Mohiuddin, Minister for Public Health Engineering, Flood Control and Irrigation, who had to come out with a statement on the issues during the afternoon
session. Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone had to allow zero hour, otherwise not scheduled for the day, for the members to raise their issues constituency-wise in view of the persistent demands. Later, 38 members raised the issues of public importance in their respective constituencies. Reacting to the minister’s intervention over the issue of drinking water and ration supplies, Panthers Party member Harsh Dev Singh asked the government to resign for it had maintained a criminal silence and failed to come up to the expectations of the people. He lamented that the minister had rejected the issues raised by the members cutting across party lines in one voice for providing basic facilities. Harsh Dev Singh criticised the government over the shortage of drinking water, ration supply, power, health care, facilities in educational institutions, frequent strikes and protests by the employees.
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Swine Flu
Jammu, August 18 Manhas said the number of swine flu positive cases in Jammu had reached five. Hence there was a dire need for extra surveillance measures to control the flu in the state. He alleged that the isolation centres in Jammu had no basic facilities to tackle swine flu. “The samples collected for tests are being sent out of the state and it takes days together to detect the disease.” Manhas asked the government to provide immediate medical care for swine flu patients, besides making people aware. He also criticised the drought-like situation in the state, particularly in the Jammu province. He accused the state government for discriminating against Jammu farmers, especially with those who had faced huge losses due to delayed rains. “There are districts that have suffered more than 50 per cent losses, but unfortunately these farmers have not yet been paid any compensation. It indicates lack of commitment on the government’s part,”
he said. The BJP leader also asked the government to constitute a team to assess farmers’ losses.
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Registration with employment exchanges must
Srinagar, August 18 Responding to the observations on and criticism against his budget, he said the state could not afford to dole out an unemployment allowance to its over 5 lakh strong unemployed youths, as demanded by some legislatures, and government jobs were no solution to this pressing problem. Reeling out statistics in the Assembly, Rather said a comprehensive employment policy, which the state lacked despite facing a soaring unemployment rate over the past decade, with due stress on skill development of youths was the only way out. He said employment and counselling centres would have figures on job opportunities within and outside the state. He said the state had a huge government workforce of 5 lakh for its 1 crore population while the states like Gujarat with 5 crore population had only 4 lakh employees. The state had the highest concentration of government employees but, ironically, it did not have enough resources to pay even their salaries, making it increasingly dependent on central grants and debts. The government would open skill development centres where the youths would be taught courses to enhance their skills. They would also receive a stipend during the course, he said. The government would also set aside Rs 25 cr for unemployed youths as the margin money they needed to deposit with banks to get loans. Rather said the state had big potential for poultry, floriculture and many other products, but unemployed youths often refrained from starting out as they did not have any money to deposit with banks to get loans.
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Time ‘not ripe’ for Army pullout
Srinagar, August 18 The Army and the central paramilitary forces have been deployed to assist the state administration in dealing with insurgency and terrorism. Even though there has been marked improvement in the internal security situation in the state, the time is still not ripe for the total withdrawal of the Army and Central paramilitary forces. Any such withdrawal would be considered only after the defeat of insurgency. However, the deployment of the security forces is under continuous review and adjustments will be considered as and when warranted by changes in the ground situation, he said.
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Regularisation of services sought
Srinagar, August 18 These employees under the banner of the College Non-Teaching Employees Association carried out a two-day hunger strike on August 17 and 18 in support of their demands. They are scheduled to carry out a protest rally from Khalsa School, Magharmal Bagh to Civil Secretariat, here, on August 19. Some members of the association said they had been working on vacant posts for the past 15 to 20 years, but were yet to be regularised. Javed Ahmad, president of the association, said the association would intensify its strike in the coming days if their “genuine demands are not met”.
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Jammu, August 18
Rather
asks staff to reconsider decision on strike
