Jammu, March 30
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its latest report has detected a wasteful expenditure of worth Rs 16.86 crore by the Power Development Department (PDD) on construction of a transmission line from Jammu to Udhampur. Improper planning of the department concerned resulted in idle expenditure of such a whooping amount.

In order to provide an additional strong and dependable link to ensure availability of power to Jammu city and adjoining localities, a proposal was made by the department in 1980 for the construction of 50-km-long 220 KV single circuit line from Jammu to Udhampur at an estimated cost of Rs 2.92 crore, which is scheduled to be completed within two years.

The work was taken for execution in November 1982, but could not be completed yet. Interestingly, so far, Rs 16.86 crore has been spent on the work, which was earlier scheduled to be completed within two years with an estimated cost of Rs 2.92 crore.

“Since 1982, the project has remained under execution, conductors of 4.6 km valued Rs 11.36 lakh had been already stolen and Rs 21.92 lakh was spent on recasting of 16 damaged tower foundations,” the CAG report pointed out.

“The project is still far from completion even after incurring an expenditure of Rs 16.86 crore (nearly six times of the original cost),” the report pinpointed, adding that there has also been an avoidable expenditure of Rs 33.28 lakh on recasting the damaged tower foundations and restoration of stolen conductors. “Non-completion of the project in such a long period renders the very necessity of the transmission line questionable and any further delay in the completion of the line is fraught with risk of thefts of conductors already stringed as admitted by the government itself,” the Report pointed out.

However, the department stated that a project report had been submitted to the techno-economic committee for the accord of technical sanction and the pending works would be completed within six months provided funds were made available and added that it was difficult for the department to make foolproof arrangements to avoid thefts as the line was passing through a tough terrain and the forest area.

Jammu, March 30
Accusing the coalition government of killing democratic institutions, PDP legislators led by their legislature party leader Murtaza Khan today stormed the well of the Upper House before boycotting it for the rest of the Budget session.

Trouble erupted soon after Question Hour ended this morning. Murtaza stood up from his seat and on the top of his voice said the basic business calendar decided by the business advisory committee had been violated repeatedly in the Upper House.

“Despite our repeated pleas, we have not been provided with the revised calendar till date. I had moved five resolutions, two short-notice questions and four calling attention motions, besides seeking four half-an-hour discussions, but not a single of them was listed in the House,” said Murtaza.

I had also sought a discussion on Justice Sagir Ahmed’s committee report in terms of Rule 52, but there had been no action from the Chair. Hence, it made no sense for us to sit in the House just for Rs 500 for a day, he added.

At this stage Murtaza was joined by his party legislators Syed Asgar Ali and Nizam-ud-Din Khatana. The PDP MLCs trooped into the well and staged a vociferous protest.

Seeking attention of Deputy Chairman Arvinder Singh Micky, Murtaza said, “Under present circumstances, we are being forced by your conduct and violation of rules to boycott the House for the rest of the session.”

Amid din, he accused the present regime of killing democratic institutions in the state as part of an evil design so as to choke the voice of the Opposition.

Later, talking to The Tribune, Murtaza alleged that a particular but an important resolution of his was listed via balloting by the Council Secretary for March 9. However, to his utter surprise the calendar was changed at the eleventh hour and March 9 was declared a holiday in the Upper House.

He also accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of callousness.

The Budget session began on February 22 and the Chief Minister had visited the Upper House only twice.

“He has got several important portfolios with him; for instance power but he passes on files to his ministers for replying to the concerns of the Opposition and the ministers with half-baked replies and incomplete information make a mockery of the House,” Murtaza said.

It may be stated here that peeved over the alleged vindictive attitude of the Chief Minister all 21 MLAs of the PDP had boycotted the Lower House yesterday for the rest of session.

The PDP had accused Omar of playing games on his cellphone during the Assembly proceedings.

Jammu, March 30
Students of Moulana Azad Memorial (MAM) College today demanded strict action against Prof Ramesh Gupta, who had allegedly enticed some students of statistics of BA and BSc first year to pay him money to pass the statistics paper. The paper was held yesterday.

“Write (MP Sir) at the end of your answer sheet to pass the paper and charges are Rs 5,000 per paper.” This was how the professor lured some students, alleged Thakur Varinder Singh, president of the Jammu Joint Students Federation. He said principal of the college MS Baloria was informed immediately.

Thakur alleged that Gupta had charged Rs 5,000 each from 17 students. The college principal checked the answer sheets of all students to verify the allegations and found that the answer sheets of six students carried the alleged code (MP Sir).

Talking to The Tribune, Principal Baloria said Gupta had been barred from entering the examination hall and the Controller Examination, Jammu University, had also been requested to debar him from any exam duty.

“We believe in fairness in conducting examinations. As such action would be taken against the professor under as per law,” said Baloria. The result of the six students, whose papers were found having the alleged code, would also be withheld, he added. However, denying all allegations, Gupta said it was a drama. “These are baseless allegations. I have never taken money from students. These students have failed to qualify their internal assessment examination and that is why they are targeting me,” he said.

“No one has debarred me from entering the examination hall. In fact, the principal has told me that he would assign me exam duties of first and second years instead of first year exams,” prof Gupta said.

Jammu, March 30
Minister for Finance and Planning Abdul Rahim Rather today told the Assembly that the government had decided to create 6,000 vacancies in the Health and Medical Education Department, for the first time, in the state. He said the Cabinet yesterday only decided the creation of 4,000 vacancies, which he hoped would be filled within one year.

Replying to the discussion on withdrawal of certain sums from and out of the consolidated funds of Jammu and Kashmir state for the services of the financial year 2010-11, the minister said already various recruiting agencies of the government were on the job.

“Till date 2,021 candidates have been selected by the Public Service Commission, 11,157 by the State Services Selection Board and 7,499 by the Police Recruitment Board,” he said, adding that the government has asked the departmental committees to expedite the process of filling of Class IV vacancies. — TNS

Jammu, March 30
The Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department of the state has no weigh bridge at the Lakhanpur toll plaza-the gateway to the state,which is causing a loss of crores to the exchequer.

Around 8,000 overloaded carriers “dodged” the department at the toll plaza in the past four years. It may be stated here that on an average, 2000 carriers daily enter the state via Lakhanpur.

Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution,

Shabir Ahmed Khan admitted in the Upper House here today that there was no weigh bridge in Lakhanpur and hence, the department relied on private parties and the Excise Department.

Several overloaded carriers either sneak in or avoid the toll plaza without remitting the fine, he said. However, Khan said the department had now decided to set up its own weigh bridge at a cost of Rs 50 lakh.

National Conference legislator Altaf Ahmed Wani wanted to know

what the government was doing to identify the violators and check the malpractice.The state was losing crores of rupees because of official apathy, said Wani.

The minister said special drives had been launched to identify the violators. The minister informed the House that 1,49,803 overloaded carriers were impounded by flying squads of the motor vehicles department during 2004-08 and Rs 18 crore had been recovered.

Sub-section-1 of Section 194 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, provided that a motor vehicle driven in contravention of the provisions of Section 113 or Section 114 shall invite a minimum fine of Rs 2000 and an additional amount of Rs 1000 per tonne in case of excess load, said Khan.

Jammu, March 30
Alarmed by the detection of poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio virus, in an infant here last week, the emergency three-day special pulse polio campaign launched in five districts of the Jammu division ended this afternoon.

Over four lakh children in the age group of five from Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi districts were administered polio drops afresh during this special drive, which was monitored by the representatives of World Health Organisation (WHO).

Children had taken the polio dose on January 10 during a nation-wide drive to check the disease.

Dr Kulbhushan Pandotra, Director Family Welfare, told The Tribune that the three-day door-to-door special drive in five districts of the Jammu division was mandatory following the detection of a polio case from a slum area of the city’s Fruit Mandi Complex a few days ago. The case was confirmed after victim’s samples were sent to two laboratories at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh and Mumbai, he said.

Incidentally, the victim was a six-month-old girl child, Kulsum, whose parents hail from Myanmar (Burma) and had been changing slums in the Jammu division after illegally crossing into India about three years ago.

Pandotra said there were reports that 16 such Burmese families had been living in other slum and kiln areas of the five districts. Surfacing of this polio case alarmed every one to such an extent that it was decided to immediately hold a special campaign in these districts so that children were once again administered the medicine,” the Director said.

He admitted that Kulsum had not been immunised in the January 10 drive when about 20 lakh children were administered polio drops across the state. “The reason could be that Kulsum’s father must have not come forward out of fear of being identified as a foreigner staying here illegally,” Pandotra said.

The Director said even during the ongoing special drive, most of the slum dwellers living in Narwal and Nagrota localities were reluctant to administer polio drops to their children. “We had to approach religious preachers to convince them,” Pandotra said.

The detection of a polio case has disturbed everyone, even at the national level, as it is feared that the Burma family must have stayed in other states as well before landing here.

AU Butt, the state consultant of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), said the second phase of the pulse polio campaign would again be taken up within 40 days in all these five districts to ensure that the dreaded disease did not spread. A similar case was also detected in the city in 2006.

Jammu, March 30
National secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and MP D Raja said today that his party would strongly oppose the “move” of the state government to debar women of their rights to property if they marry someone from outside Jammu and Kashmir.

Raja, who came from New Delhi to participate in a protest rally organised by the Left parties against the price hike here today, said the CPI’s stand was very much clear on this controversial issue. “The Permanent Resident (Women) Disqualification Bill is discriminatory, biased and against women, and we would take strong stand against any such attempt,” Raja asserted and advised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to avoid such move to protect interests of all sections of society.

Earlier, addressing the Left parties’ rally, Raja alleged that the UPA government had been functioning under the direction of the United States (US). “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been taking every decision under pressure of the US,” he alleged.

“Not only foreign policies of the country are influenced by the US pressure, even economic decisions are also taken on the directions of the “imperialist forces”, he added.

“The US has been playing notorious and dubious role in South Asia,” he said and added that instead of succumbing before the US pressure, India and Pakistan should have jointly solved their problems bilaterally without the help of any mediator.

“India and Pakistan should engage themselves in a meaningful dialogue to solve all issues,” he argued and stressed on the need of taking effective steps to restore lasing peace in the state.

Pointing towards unprecedented hike in the prices of essential commodities, Raja squarely blamed the pro-rich policies of the UPA for this situation.

Jammu, March 30
Elections to the posts of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief and members of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) will be held in the first week of July this year.

This was disclosed by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhi, Additional Returning Officer (ARO) appointed by the AICC to conduct organisational elections in Jammu and Kashmir, while addressing a press conference here on Sunday.

He said two phases of the organisational elections had been completed and the next process would be started in the first week of May.

While admitting that he had received reports of bungling in the membership drive, Sukhvinder said a scrutiny of all membership forms had been going on. “ For the first time in the history, 90 per cent of the membership forms have been filed with photographs of the members,” he said. He added this process was adopted to keep a check on bungling in the membership drive.

“About 80 per cent of the scrutiny and compilation process has been completed and the remaining would be completed very soon”, he said and informed that the maximum number of 61,254 members had been enrolled in the party in Jammu rural.

Giving details of the ongoing election process, he said elections of block presidents would be held in the first week of May followed by elections of district presidents from June 7 to June 27. He further informed that the election of PCC president would be held in the first week of July.

He said a record membership had been done and around 5,000 delegates had deposited fee in the Jammu province. He said district scrutiny committees had almost completed the process of screening the membership in each district.

Meanwhile, a team of the AICC comprising Tajdar Babbar, a former minister and member of the Central Election Authority (CEA), AP Sethi, former MP and member of the CEA, along with Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, MLA, visited Jammu to review the membership drive. The committee will visit Srinagar on Monday morning to review the process of membership in the Kashmir province.

Srinagar, March 30
The Hindu Welfare Society (HWS), Kashmir, a non-political group, has said the drive for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits will be meaningless without a quota for those who have not migrated from the valley.

“Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh recently announced an employment package for Kashmiri Pandits, who moved out of the valley two decades ago. The package is a welcome move, but it should be extended to non-migrant Kashmiri families also. Only then the drive for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits will be successful,” AK Rajpuri, president of the group, said.

He said: “Since the youths are crossing the age bar set by the state government for availing employment opportunities in the public sector, they pressurise their families that they would move out of the state. However, their families are holding them back.”

Rajpuri stated: “Since the families have no land or other property left, it creates difficulties for them in exploring even the self-employment avenues. The situation becomes worse as no rehabilitation package has been announced in our favour. Appealing to the Prime Minister and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene and instruct the state government to work accordingly, he said: “We have also put forth our demand before Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. We want jobs to be provided to our youths, especially those living in the far-flung areas.”

He said: “We have put the flag of secularism alive here, and should be rewarded for the same.”

Rajpuri said 1000 Kashmiti Pandit families were living below the poverty line.

He demanded 500 jobs to non-migrant Kashmiri families out of the Prime Minister’s employment package.

“The government has ignored us on all fronts, including rural development and the healthcare sector. Our condition is deteriorating with every passing day,” Omkar Nath Pajnoo, convener of the HWS, said, adding the government should offer assistance to the destitute families.

Jammu, March 30
With students belonging to a particular community having been caught cheating during exams by using cellphones concealed under their turbans, some organisations of this community today condemned the police and the state Board of School Education officials for frisking the students by opening their turbans publically.

These organisations, including the Nirbow Nirvair Organisation, Sikh Naujawan Sabha and the J&K Sikh Youths Organisation, held a meeting today to discuss the issue and condemned the police action.

Terming it as against the tenets of their religion, the leaders of these organisations also condemned the students who were indulging in such unsavoury activities during exams. They said though it was the duty of the police to check the students, it would be better if they were checked while they were entering the examination centre.

The leaders also appealed to the parents of all students to advice their wards so that no such incident took place again. Harmeet Singh, vice-president of the Nirbhow Nirvair Organisation, said, “These students have let down the whole community and we all feel very bad. But the officials should not open their turbans in front of others. If any such incident takes place in any examination hall, the student may be asked to open his turban separately.”

Ramneek Singh, another leader of the community, said, “It is a shameful act that students are concealing their cellphones under their turbans. They should be aware about their religious sentiments. These incidents are not only hurting them, but also the community.”

On the other hand, the school board welcomed the decision taken by various organisations in this regard. The Secretary (UMC Wing) of the board, Javed Iqbal, said, “We are taking the matter seriously and always call the police before taking action against students using unfair means in exams. Only the parents of such students can dissuade them from using unfair means in the exams.”