Katra, September 17
Katra, the base camp of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, is wearing a festive look ahead of Navratras. Massive preparations are on to deck up this town for the nine-day festival, which will begin from Saturday.

Nearly 45,000 pilgrims from across the country are expected to pay obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine. Various cultural shows, processions, a freestyle competition between wrestlers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and an All-India devotional song competition will be held here as part of the nine-day celebrations.

All bazaars in Jammu, the historical Bahu Fort and other key buildings in Jammu city apart from the Bhimgarh Fort in Reasi town and the Ambaran archaeological site and fort in Akhnoor will be illuminated. “Hoteliers have already announced a discount of 30 per cent,” Rakesh Wazir, senior vice-president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association said.

Four companies of the CRPF and the Haryana police had already reached here to keep an eye on the massive rush of devotees, Katra SP Ashok Sharma said. “We have divided Katra and the shrine route in five zones and 26 sectors to keep maximum vigil,” he said.

The road to Katra is dotted with the pilgrims who have started pouring in from all nook and corners of the country.

Pardeep Kumar, leader of a 50-member group from Lucknow, told The Tribune on his way to Katra that the group is coming for the 11th time. He said: “We have travelled nearly 3,000 km visiting every possible shrine in Nepal, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal and finally the Mata Vasihno Devi temple.” There are hundreds of pilgrims who are going by foot. Shrda Devi has come all the way from Bikaner.

Jammu Division Commissioner Pawan Kotwal told mediapersons in Jammu that Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand would be opening the festival at Katra on the first day. “The festival will signify peace in the region. We invite pilgrims, tourists to visit the state during this auspicious occasion and there is no fear from any quarter,” he said.

MK Bhandari, additional CEO of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, said the peaceful situation was revealed from the record number of about 60 lakh devotees who have been visiting the shrine this year. Last year, the number was about 48 lakh till this date.

Jammu, September 17
Several sports events in different categories were held on the second day of the Inter-Frontier Sports Meet of the Border Security Force (BSF) here today.

Maninder Singh bagged gold for Punjab Frontier in weightlifting (69 kg category) while Robin Laha of Jammu Frontier and Sandeep Kumar of Rajasthan Frontier bagged silver and bronze, respectively.

South Bengal Judokas shine in 73 kg category; Karambir and Harpreet Singh bagged gold and bronze, respectively, whereas Kashmir Frontier in 74 kg Greco Roman won the competition.

Jammu Frontier wrestlers too bagged gold and silver in 96 kg category whereas Mizoram and Cachhar Frontier recorded their presence in 96 kg freestyle wrestling by bagging silver and bronze, respectively.

In judo (66 kg category), Baljit Kumar of West Bengal Frontier won gold medal whereas Sukhwant Singh of Jammu Frontier bagged the silver prize. In 73 kg category, Karambir Singh of South Bengal Frontier and Ashok Kumar of Gujrat Frontier won gold and silver medals, respectively.

In 60 kg category of Greco Roman wrestling, Ajay Kumar of Rajasthan Frontier won the gold medal whereas Dharambir of South Bengal won silver medal. However, in 47 kg category, Ashok Kumar of North Bengal won gold medal where as Satbir Kumar of Kashmir Frontier won silver medal.

In 96 kg category of Greco Roman, Parambir Singh and Krishan Kumar of Jammu Frontier were declared winner of gold and silver medals, respectively.

Freestyle wrestling event in 60 kg category saw Rakesh Kumar of Jammu as winner of gold medal and Anil Kumar of South Bengal Frontier won silver medal.

Jail Prakash of Jammu as well as Arup Devnath of Tripura and TH Robindra of Assam Frontier were given gold silver and bronze medals, respectively, and were declared as all-round best gymnastic.

Jammu, September 17
Opposition parties have criticised RS Chib, Minister for Technical Education and Medical Education, for carrying a picture of his on a public notice about the new time schedule for visitors in various hospitals of the city today.

Chib refuted the allegations saying he issued the public notice in the interests of common people. “The public notice is about informing people about the revised time schedule for visitors, who come to see patients admitted in various wards, to avoid chaos, ensure cleanliness and smooth functioning of the hospitals. This is untrue that I have indulged in self propaganda. The public notice has been issued to seek cooperation from people.”

BJP spokesperson Ramesh Arora said, “It was for the information of general public, but in this advertisement 30 per cent space was covered with the photograph of Chib. It is public money and the minister should not misuse it for personal publicity .”

AK Sahni, PDP spokesperson, said if the minister was so concerned about people, he could have issued a small public notice. It did not need his big picture on it.

Jammu, September 17
The Hiranagar police today arrested a missionary after he was allegedly influencing three persons to embrace a particular religion.

Official sources said Salamat Masih (60) of Barnala in Punjab, was allegedly influencing Keshav Dass, Satpal and another villager of Indira Colony of Hiranagar Morh to convert their religion.

However, after locals came to know about the missionary’s plans, they roughed him up before handing him over to the police.

The missionary had taken the trio to the bank of a canal at Dayalachak for giving them a holy bath before converting their religion.

Sources said the missionary had promised the trio Rs 10,000 each. He had been actively preaching the particularly religion in the area from the past two years, sources said.

Though he was with the Hiranagar police, no FIR had been registered against him so far.

Srinagar, September 17
Following an assurance from the Lalla Ded Hospital administration that security at the hospital would be strengthened, junior doctors of the government maternity hospital called off their strike yesterday.

The doctors went on a strike on September 13 after a woman doctor was allegedly thrashed and abused by the attendant of a patient. The OPD work was affected badly though the emergency services were exempted from the strike.

Hospital sources said the junior doctors called off the strike following the hospital administration agreeing in writing that appropriate security would be provided to the medicos. They said the junior doctors expressed satisfaction over the assurance of the hospital administration and decided to resume work.

“The decision of the administration to gear up the security apparatus is a welcome step and this will stop the occurrence of unfortunate incidents like the one that occurred on Sunday. There is a need to restrict the entry of attendants to the hospital. This will lead to better healthcare management, benefiting the patients at the end of the day,” the sources said.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Mohammad Shafi, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, said the security concerns of the doctors had been put forward to the authorities concerned.

“We have asked police officials to give us security for the time being till there is a permanent solution to the problem. Earlier, private security agencies provided security, but that was not effective. Now, we have assured the doctors of a permanent solution. Since the Principal of the Government Medical College, Srinagar, is out of station, we have taken up the matter with the in charge principal, who has assured us of timely action in this regard,” said Dr Shafi.

Some senior doctors said, “If security of the hospital is improved, visiting hours for attendants are restricted, as in any other hospital and the same is abided by the people, most of the problems would be resolved, ensuring better patient care.”

Jammu, September 17
The Panun Kashmir and the Kashmir Samiti, Delhi, (KSD) today jointly appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to delink the economic package for displaced Kashmiri Pandits from their return to the valley.

While addressing a press conference here, Ajay Chrungoo, chairman of the Panun Kashmir, and LN Dhar, president of the KSD, demanded that the economic package be given to the Kashmiri Pandits at their present place of stay and their return to the valley should be treated as a different issue.

Chrungoo, who was appointed a member of the government’s apex body, today disassociated himself from it.

Some representatives of other Kashmiri Pandit organisations, who were also appointed as members of the body, had yesterday disassociated themselves from the body that included Dr Agnishekhar, Ashwani Chrungoo and others.

He said the concept of creating transit camps in the valley was basically a process of creating isolation camps and the process of seeking an undertaking on their return in the name of providing jobs was a process of blackmailing.

Chrungoo said the government was reducing the displacement tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits to merely an economic problem.

Dhar alleged that the government had created its own groups who were ready to return to the valley for their vested interests.

He said, “We have out own road map and when the government accepts that only then we will return to the valley.”

Meanwhile, Moti Lal Dhar, president of the Nagrota migrant camp, appreciated Agnishekhar and Chrangoo for withdrawing form the government’s framed apex committee.

Jammu, September 17
Members of the National Secular Forum (NSF) today held a protest demonstration against Chinese incursions in the Ladakh region on the Jammu University campus.

Addressing the gathering, Vikas Sharma, president of NSF, said the Centre had not paid attention to the region for the past many years and as a result, the Chinese had been able to enter the Indian territory and harass Ladakhi people.

The NSF later burnt an effigy of China and raised slogans against the Chinese government.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena Hindustan said today that China posed a big threat to the country as the recent incidents of incursion by it were an attempt to occupy Indian territory.

Jammu, September 17
Legislative party leader of the Panthers Party Harsh Dev Singh today demanded a thorough probe into the fraudulent withdrawals of subsidies by fake industrial units during the erstwhile coalition government.

He alleged that the fraud withdrawals robbed the state exchequer of crores of rupees, adding that during the recent Assembly session certain startling disclosures had been made pertaining to the functioning of the Industries Department in the state during the past three years.

He said the government had admitted that subsidies had been availed by more than 15,000 fake industrial units in the state, which were untraceable.

He said of the total untraceable and fake units 12,855 units had availed the subsidy in Kashmir and 2,992 units had availed the subsidy and made fictitious withdrawals in the Jammu region.

Expressing concern over the established fraud and loot of the public exchequer, he expressed concern over the issue and questioned the criminal silence of the government. He said the government was trying to hush up the matter and conceal the whole issue due to the alleged involvement of high-ups.

He called upon the minister concerned to have the matter enquired and appropriate proceedings initiated under the law against the guilty.

Harsh Dev further flayed the discriminatory treatment doled out to the industrial units of Jammu under the rehabilitation scheme of the government during the past three years. He said the government had provided incentives and soft loans to potentially revivable 66 industrial units of the state, out of which only seven belonged to Jammu and 59 belonged to Kashmir.

He questioned the rationale behind the withdrawal of Central Excise Duty exemption earlier granted and announced for the state on the pattern of northeastern states.

He said the withdrawals of the said incentive to the industries in the state had resulted in the closure of several industrial units, thus, rendering thousands of employees jobless.

Jammu, September 17
The Jammu police here yesterday busted three gangs of burglars with the arrest of four persons and recovery of stolen goods worth Rs 14 lakh. These gangs had been reportedly operating in the areas of RS Pura, Trikuta Nagar, Gharota, Narwal, Chinore and Sidhra.

The arrested persons have been identified as kingpin Parvaiz Ahmad of Malipat in Kishtwar, Yaseen Malik of Maharashtra, who had been putting up in Jain Bazar, Sanjeev Kumar of Rajouri and Tarsem Lal of Raipur Gujra in RS Pura tehsil.

Jammu SSP Manohar Singh said here yesterday that the four arrested were wanted in number of cases in Samba, Udhampur and stolen property worth Rs 14 lakh was seized from them.

Jammu, September 17
A mob today blocked the link road leading to Kathua for nearly an hour after an old woman’s chain was snatched by two motor cycle- borne youths this morning.

Official sources said the youths snatched the gold chain of Kamlesh Kumari from outside her residence in ward number 16.

On hearing about the incident, women and children blocked the road protesting against increasing incidents of theft and chain snatching in Kathua.They raised slogans against the police.

The sources said senior police officers, including the SHO, Kathua, Surinder Rao, pacified the agitating people and assured them of steps to improve the law and order situation in the town.