Jammu, January 2
The life in the entire Jammu region was today thrown out of gear due to the collapse of the northern grid, though till the evening the supply was largely restored. People had to face hardships due to the abrupt power failure.

People in the region woke up to chilling cold and darkness as power supply in the city went off around 3 am due to the failure of the northern grid. The Power Development Department (PDD) officials blamed heavy fog in the regions of Punjab and Haryana responsible for the grid failure.

“Due to heavy fog, there was accumulation of frost on the towers and transmission lines supplying power from the northern grid, that resulted in short circuit and subsequent collapse of the grid,” said Mohammed Qasim, Chief Engineer, Maintenance and rural electrification wing of the PDD.

He said that due to the collapse of the northern grid the supply to the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir was affected and work was going on to restore the power supply system.

The state industry too suffered losses as power supply to most of the industrial areas remained cut off for the day.

“The losses in the Gangyal industrial area was to the tune of Rs 35 lakh, but the power supply was restored so the losses were minimum. But other industrial areas had to face more losses due to the power supply failure,” said Tejwant Singh Reen, president of the Federation of Industries, Jammu.

Hospitals in the Jammu region were provided electricity supply from the essential service lines so there was less trouble there. The hospitals also used generators to carry on with their routine work.

“We have big generators to take care of any emergency arising out of power failure in the area,” said a senior official of the GMCH, Jammu.

At the Jammu Railway station, some incoming trains were delayed due to the power failure and there was chaos at the railway reservation counter as the computer network remained affected for some time.

“We don’t have electric operated trains here, so there was not much problem. But there was delay in the arrival of some trains, which were taken care of,” an officer at the Jammu railway station said.

Meanwhile, around 80 per cent of the power supply in the region was restored till the filing of this report and the restoration work was still on.

Srinagar: Kashmir’s overwhelming dependence on the northern grid for its power supply today resulted in almost every part of it plunging into a long spell of darkness due to a snag in the grid.

The power went off in the wee hours around 3 am, and normalcy was slowly restored to different areas only in the afternoon. As frenetic consumers, who depend upon electricity heavily during the ongoing severe cold wave, called up the Power Department, some were told that the department was trying to draw from its local hydropower plants to provide some comfort to people.

However, it was not to be as official sources said the hydropower plants were operating far from their peak, as was the case in winters due to a drastic fall in the water level. The local generation is around 55 MW, as per a recent statement of the Power

Department, while the demand in the valley is around 1050 MW.

The region gets 720 MW from the northern grid and the department resorts to power cuts due to deficiency in the supply. “I understand that the grid failure was an unexpected development and nobody could be blamed for it. But it is bizarre that we have to import all our demand needs despite having rich hydel resources,” Abdur Rehman, a businessman in Lal Chowk, said outside the Power Development Department office in Jahangir Chowk.

Jammu, January 2
Activists of the Mahila Sanrakshan Samiti (MSS) today reiterated their demand for a probe by the CBI into the alleged custodial killing of Rajnish Sharma.

The MSS activists reached the house of Jammu East MLA Ashok Khajuria and sought his intervention in forcing the government to ensure a CBI probe into the custodial killing.

Archana Koushal, a core samiti member, and other members of the samiti told Khajuria that Rajnish was kidnapped from Jammu by the Srinagar police in connivance with the Jammu police. She said he was taken to Srinagar and locked in Ram Munshi Bagh police station. He was given inhumane treatment for days together. She alleged that the torture by the police led to the death of Rajnish, which was later portrayed as suicide.

“It was a murder by the police. But unfortunately no action was taken against any police officer from Srinagar and Jammu. The government adopts a different yardstick for a crime committed in Srinagar and Jammu. As the youth belonged to Jammu, no one took the matter seriously and today even after three months of the killing, not even a single word of condemnation has been uttered by any one,” Archana said.

The MSS members appealed to the BJP MLA to meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and demand a CBI inquiry into the incident. Khajuria assured the activists that he would personally take up the matter with the Chief Minister and ask him to hand over the case to the CBI as the police had failed to initiate any action against the erring police officials in the case.

Khajuria said the cause of Jammu had always been among the top priorities of the BJP and any injustice and discrimination meted against Jammu in any field would be opposed.

Jammu, January 2
Even as the police has not yet completed its inquiry into the “militant attack” on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in Kishtwar five days back, initial investigations revealed that the encounter was stage-managed by his own personal security officer (PSO) to befool the higher authorities. The PSO, who claimed to have effectively retaliated the “attack” and forced the militants to run away, was detained by the police for questioning.

DSP (operation) Ashok Singh, who has been assigned the job to conduct the inquiry into the whole episode, is tight-lipped, but the SSP, Kishtwar, Dr Hasib Mugal, admitted that the questioning of the PSO had been going on to ascertain the truth. “There is some thing fishy about the whole incident,” the SSP told The Tribune. He said the police officers concerned were questioning the PSO to complete the investigations. He, however, made it clear that strict action would be taken if the PSO was found to have enacted the drama.

Some unidentified persons allegedly fired at NCP district president Parvez Ahmed Tak of Kishtwar district on last Sunday night when he was moving on the premises of his house in the Patnanzi area of the district. As soon as the militants fired at Tak, his PSO reportedly “effectively” retaliated and forced the militants to run away. After getting information about the “attack”, a police party comprising some senior officers rushed to the spot.

As Patnanzi is considered a peaceful area and there was no input from the security agencies about the presence of militants in this belt, the police started investigating whether some new group of militants had managed to sneak into this belt or some criminals were involved in the incident.

Sources quoting senior officers disclosed that the police got suspicious when some empty cartridges fired from the rifle of the PSO were found outside the house of the NCP leader and these bullets were fired from the opposite direction. “Out of the total 13 bullets fired from the rifle of the PSO six were found on the premises of the house of the NCP leader, while seven were found outside the house. This authenticated the suspicion that these bullets were fired from the opposite direction,” the sources disclosed while quoting the report of the initial investigation conducted by the police.

After getting circumstantial evidences, the police detained the PSO to ascertain from which direction the militants had opened firing. Immediately after the incident, the security of the politician was withdrawn and the SSP, Kishtwar, asked DSP (operation) Ashok Singh to conduct an inquiry and submit the report within 10 days.

Jammu, January 2
The PDP today blamed the state government for adopting a casual approach in implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme in the state. The PDP pointed out that the scheme had failed to take off in the remotest areas, especially in border district of Rajouri where this employment generation policy appeared only on papers.

Addressing a meeting of party workers, senior party leader and MLA Darhal Choudhary Zulfikar Ali pointed out that the NREGA scheme was only on papers and nothing concrete had been done in this regard.

Zulfikar Ali said under the scheme, it was mandatory to provide 100 days’ employment to each job card holder, but in Rajouri district a majority of card holders had been roaming from one place to another to get employment.

Shifting blames on the authorities for adopting a casual approach towards the scheme, Zulfikar Ali pointed out that NREGA was the revolutionary step to create job avenues for the people of rural areas, but the government had miserably failed to take benefits of the scheme, which had already proved beneficial for poor people in other parts of the country.

Lambasting the government for not taking serious steps in implementing the scheme, Zulfikar Ali said though the government had been claiming to create job avenues for people, the authorities had adopted a casual approach towards the already launched Centre-sponsored schemes.

Pointing towards the non-implementation of the scheme in Rajouri, Zulfikar Ali said only two months of the working season of this financial year had been left, but so far the scheme remained only on papers in most parts of the district. 

Jammu, January 2
Some organisations of the Kashmiri Pandits today decided to form a common platform to highlight the plight of the displaced community.

A joint meeting of various Kashmiri Pandit organisations was held today and representatives of the All-State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC), Panun Kashmir, JK Vichar Manch, Non-camp Coordination Committee and Camps were present.

The meeting discussed the modalities of forming a united front to highlight various issues concerning the Kashmiri Pandit community.

It was decided unanimously to observe some important community days in a unified manner, particularly January 19 (Holocaust Day), July 13 (Black Day) and September 14 (Balidan Divas) henceforth. As a beginning, it was decided to observe January 19 (Holocaust Day ) jointly in Jammu this year.

It was decided to hold a massive protest demonstration on this day to highlight various community issues.

HL Chatta was nominated the coordinator of the programme and was authorised to contact other Kashmiti Pandit organisations to associate them with the joint programme.

Members expressed concern that despite massive opposition to the so-called recommendations of the Working Group, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah presented the controversial report to the Prime Minister.

The contents of the report regarding autonomy, Article 356, delimitation, Article 370 and pre-1953 position are all retrogressive measures taking the state to medieval times.

This will further jeopardise the already precarious condition of the minorities of the state.

A joint resolution was passed rejecting the contents of the report.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting included AN Vaishnavi, president of the ASKPC, Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, president of the Panun Kashmir, DN Kissu, chairman of the Non-camp Coordination Committee, RK Raina, senior vice-president of the ASKPC, HL Chatta, general secretary of the ASKPC, Virender Raina, national spokesperson of the Panun Kashmir and Ashok Kangan, president of the JK Vichar Manch.

Jammu, January 2
As Jammuites celebrated New Year with fervour, inmates of the old-age home at Ambphalla here waited for their children here for the whole day, but nobody turned up. The excitement to celebrate New Year touched even the inmates of this old age home. “Mere bete ne aaj mujhse milne aana tha, par kisi kaam ki vajah se woh aa nhi paya hoga (My son was supposed to come here to meet me, he might be busy with his work),” Tej Ram, with tears in his eyes, said.

Asked for how many years he has been living in this old-age home, Tej Ram said, “For the past 11-years, I have been living here and always remember the good old days of my life.” This is not only his story, but everyone living in the old-age home has a similar tale to tell.

Bansi Lal in his mid 70s, with a smile on his face, said, “I count my age with every passing year and think how much time is left.” He further said apart from the family there was excitement for us and the young generation should realise this.

Karma Devi, an inmate of the old-age home, said, “When a majority of Jammuites celebrate New Year in clubs, hotels with liquor, some politicians or rich people visit here and distribute items of basic requirements among us, which are the only hope for people like us.”

Meanwhile, Minister for Health Education, Technical Education, Youth Services and Sports RS Chib and Gandhi Global Family, an NGO, spared time for the inmates of the home to celebrate New Year with them and distributed blankets, fruits and gifts among them. 

Udhampur, January 2
To press for the early acceptance of their demands, employees of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department locked the gate of the Divisional Officer’s office at MH Chowk here for about three hours today.

Led by the PHE Employees Association, the employees staged a demonstration in support of their long pending demands. Fed up with hollow assurances so far, the agitated employees locked the main gate of the office while senior officers on duty inside helplessly watched the employees having their way.

Association president Som Nath alleged that the state government was discriminating against the PHE employees of the Jammu region. For instance, the daily wage workers were getting Rs 500 per month as compared to Rs 2,100 being given to their counterpart in the valley. “The state government has been approached several times in this regard, but without any positive result. The association strongly demands this disparity to be removed immediately, he added.

Another important demand relates to filling of nearly 16,000 vacancies of assistant lineman and assistant motorman/helpers in the department. The employees were sore that while all posts in other government departments had been covered under the benefit of SRO 43, but the same benefit had not been extended to the employees of the PHE Department. This again smacked of discrimination against the PHE employees, alleged the protesters.

The employees were also up in arms against the non-supply of coal given to them in winter to keep themselves warm. But with minimum temperature dipping to zero degree, no coal had been supplied to them so far. The employees relented after the senior officers present in the office assured them that coal would be made available within two days.

Jammu, January 2
In connection with the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the Sikh community took out an impressive nagar kirtan procession through the city today. The birth anniversary of the 10th Guru will be celebrated on January 5.

Thousands of devotees and various Sikh organisations participated in the procession to celebrate the 344 Prakash Divas of the 10th Sikh Guru. The procession started from Maharani Chand Kour Gurdwara and culminated at Nanak Nagar Gurdwara, where a special ‘ardas’ was performed by the ‘sangat’.

The procession organised by the District Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Jammu, passed through Jewel Chowk, Vinayak Bazaar, Bikram Chowk, Asia Crossing, Green Belt Park, Gole Market, Gandhi Nagar and culminated at Nanak Nagar Gurdwara. Despite severe cold, devotees started thronging gurdwaras since early morning and offered prayers. The vehicle carrying holy Shri Guru Granth Sahib was decked up with flowers.

Besides, youths from the city and adjoining villages demonstrated their martial art skills in the form of Gatka. Children dressed as ‘Panj Payaras’ with swords in their hands and sporting turbans were seen leading different ‘kirtan jathas’ amidst the chanting of religious slogans.

Former minister and president of the Dogra Sadar Sabha Gulchain Singh Charak also participated in the procession and greeted people during the ongoing celebrations. The local administration had put in place elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the rally.

Meanwhile, Mahant Manjit Singh of Shiromani Dera Nangali Sahib, Poonch, greeted the people on the auspicious occasion. Different Sikh organisations have demanded a continuous electricity supply till January 5 in the view of “parbhaat pheris” and “akhand path.”

Srinagar, January 2
Expressing concern over the “deteriorating condition” of the Sher-e Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, the Non-Gazetted Employees Welfare Association (NGEWA) of the institute said today that the tertiary hospital had no exclusive ward for swine flu patients admitted there.

“As of now three swine flu patients are admitted at the SKIMS and these patients have been lodged at the post-operative ward, observation ward and intensive care unit of the hospital, respectively. We are yet to have a dedicated ward for swine flu patients and the situation on this count may assume an alarming proportion if some more such patients are admitted there,” said Deen Mohammad Gadda, president of the NGEWA, while addressing mediapersons here today.

Gadda said the patients admitted to various wards of the hospital had to go to the ground floor for investigations like X-ray, ECG, echo and colour doppler test since such facilities were missing in wards. He added that the “claims” by the hospital administration that the institute was a tertiary hospital were nothing but a figment of imagination.

“Over the past many years, we have been hearing that a water treatment plant and a dialysis machine are being installed in the hospital, but as of today there is no such thing at the institute. Life saving drugs are not available at the hospital and the medicines available are being given to patients at rates much higher than the market rates,” said Gadda.

He said boilers had become defunct at the hospital and cracks had developed in many walls of the institute. 

Srinagar, January 2
Militants kept up with their attacks on security forces and shot at two BSF personnel at Soura on the outskirts of Srinagar today, marking the first such attack in New Year.

The police said head constable Saifuddin Ahmad of 75 Battalion and constable Dharminder Singh of 26 Battalion were standing near an ATM after withdrawing money when unidentified militants fired at them. The weapon of offence was likely a pistol. Both suffered a bullet shot each and are out of danger. They were admitted to the SKIMS, Soura.

Official sources said the injured personnel were part of a team, which took the ailing jawans to the SKIMS, a routine as patients were often referred to this top government hospital for better treatment. After admitting the patients, both went to an ATM to withdraw money from their salary accounts. The sources said it was being enquired into what circumstances led to their presence there but it did seem that they did not follow proper drills.

The locality where they were shot at is a crowded market area and what has raised concerns in the security establishment is that militants were apparently roaming with guns and they fired when they found a target. Such audacity by militants in the summer capital is a reflection on their inflating morale, as they have managed to attack security personnel in the last year many times without suffering much damage.